The Rogue Nations
by Douglas the Foundry Dovakiin
Summary: Wisconsin has had enough. She has left the union along with four other states, but this will end in a second civil war or worse World War 3. To survive as countries they will have to overcome difficulties like other nations with the threat of war by Alfred trying to recapture his former states. (Rated T but this may or may not change). This is my first fanfic so have fun.
1. Chapter 1

Character List:

Rouge Nations

-Wisconsin- Rosalind Frost-May 29, 1848-dark brown hair that reaches her shoulders, blue-green eyes, lightly tanned, the ringleader, has a dehorned Holstein bull as a pet, a bit of an alcoholic, stubborn but caring and friendly, wears blue jeans/t-shirt/steel toe boots constantly, hates Illinois with a passion, a strategist, has a crush on Bruce

-Texas-Dustin Ramirez-December 29, 1845- short light brown hair, brown eyes, tanned, built, has a Texas longhorn bull for a pet, a rebel, more of a doer than a thinker, stubborn, always wanted to leave the union, wears blue jeans/steel toe boots/cowboy-like shirt

-Superior (Upper Michigan)-Roland Frost-January 26, 1837-short curly sandy blonde hair, bright blue eyes, hates being in Upper Michigan's shadow and mountain of debt, Respects Wisconsin, wears blue jeans/t-shirt/tennis shoes

-Alaska-Aurora Braginsky-January 3, 1959-long silver hair, dark blue eyes, a little cold, doesn't smile much, a strategist, Ivan's child, wears a dark blue scarf with white dots on it until the end then is pure white/winter boots/a black trench coat/black thermal pants

-New York-William Jones-July 26, 1788-short yellow blonde hair, green eyes, sophisticated, intelligent, intimidating but friendly, wears a tux or a suit every day

-Albany-Rose Jones-1686-long yellow blonde hair down to the middle of her back, pale blue eyes, not as rushed as William or New York City, enjoys being social, usually on her phone when not with people, also dresses up like her 'dad'

* * *

South

\- Georgia-Rebeca Jones-January 2, 1788-

\- South Carolina -Rachel Jones-May 23, 1788-

\- Virginia-Charlotte Jones-June 25, 1788-blue-grey eyes, pixie cut blonde hair, bossy but a good friend to her friends, often threatens her siblings and those she dubs annoying people with her six inch pocket knife, short,

\- North Carolina -Theodore Jones-November 21, 1789-

\- Kentucky-Mack-June 1, 1792-

\- Tennessee-June 1, 1796-

\- Louisiana-April 30, 1812-

\- Mississippi-December 10, 1817-

\- Alabama-December 14, 1819-

\- Missouri-August 10, 1821-

\- Arkansas-June 15, 1836-

\- Florida-March 3, 1845-

\- Vermont-March 4, 1791-

-Oklahoma-November 16, 1907

* * *

Union

-Northeast

-District of Columbia (DC)-Derek Jones-July 2, 1779- military style blonde hair, shocking blue eyes, tends to were tuxes, strict,

-Delaware-John Jones-December 7, 1787- short light brown hair, almost lime green eyes, tends to dress up, likes to be first,

-Pennsylvania-Max Jones-December 12, 1787-dark blonde hair that goes down to his shoulders, bright blue eyes, the state of brotherly love (Enough said?)

-New Jersey-Jessica Jones-December 18, 1787-black hair that goes to the middle of her back, left eye is grey and the right eye is blue, wants to constantly be with her younger brother (kind of like Belarus and Russia), also dresses up constantly

-Connecticut-Owen Jones-January 9, 1788

-Massachusetts-Eden Jones-February 6, 1788-albino, just as strict as Derek but more influential and charismatic, always wears a suit with a tie

-Maryland-Bruce Jones-April 28, 1788-gold hair that reaches his shoulders and is usually tied into a short ponytail, left eye is gold and the right one is silver, gun nut, is oblivious to Rosalind's crush

-New Hampshire-Luke Jones-June 21, 1788

-Rhode Island-Carver Jones-May 29, 1790

-Kentucky-June 1, 1792

-Maine-David Jones-March 15, 1820-short grey hair, blue eyes, wears a scarf, tries to be friends with his brothers but is to socially awkward to so he ends up fighting with one of them, has the magic touch

-West Virginia-June 20, 1863

-Midwest

-Ohio-Amber Frost-March 1, 1803-long red hair that is usually in a ponytail, pale blue eyes, friendly, a bit more city oriented and busy,

-Illinois-Gunther Frost-December 3, 1818-short brown hair that curls at the tips, brown eyes, violent and usually happy, can't drive, tries to keep his family together but fails to, has a black bear as a pet

-Indiana-Tomas Frost-December 11, 1816-shaggy light brown hair, bright blue eyes, more industrial than his brothers (faster paced), friendly but weary of outsiders (not Midwest states), dresses casually like the rest of the Midwest

-Michigan-Kyle Frost-January 26, 1837- short grey hair, violet eyes, has a scar on the left side of his face, wants to be close to his twin but keeps on getting pushed away

-Iowa-Jake Frost-December 28, 1846-Short blonde hair, grey eyes, short kempt beard, farmers tanned, the joker of the group (when talking he seems normal, but some of the things he does makes you question his sanity)

-Minnesota-Trevor Frost-May 11, 1858-short brown hair, brown eyes, very kind/helpful/friendly, gets picked on by Gunther a lot, sometimes forgotten

-North Dakota-Earl Frost-November 2, 1889-long braided black hair down to the middle of his back, amber eyes, twin to South Dakota, doesn't talk much and what he says when he talks doesn't make much sense (much like prophecies), stoic

-South Dakota-Emily Frost-September 2, 1889-shoulder length dark brown hair (usually pulled back to a ponytail in the summer and down during the winter), light brown eyes, often to be embarrassed by her twin brother, the elder of the Dakota twins, somehow related to the Midwesterners but not usually clumped together with them, friendly and hardworking

-Plains

-Kansas-Robert Peterson-January 29, 1861- dark brown hair, brown eyes, tan, a bit of a business man, a hardcore football fan

-Nebraska-Kelly Peterson-March 1, 1867-long light brown hair, pale grey eyes, tan, constantly annoyed by Adam, farmer

-Montana-Adam Peterson-November 8, 1889-short dirty blonde hair, pale blue eyes, tan, a bit of a pervert, fun loving but caring, usually has a smirk on his face

-Wyoming-Victoria Peterson-July 10, 1890-long silvery hair, deep green eyes, good friends with Emily because of the shared black hills, tan, much more of a business woman than her older brother Robert

-North West

-Oregon-February 14, 1859

-Washington-November 11, 1889-hipster obsessed with organic food

-Idaho-July 3, 1890

-South West

-California-September 9, 1850

-Nevada-October 31, 1864

-Colorado-August 1, 1876

-Utah-January 4, 1896

-New Mexico-January 6, 1912

-Arizona-February 14, 1912

-Island

-Hawaii-August 21, 1959-very dark skin, brown eyes, heavily tattooed, likes to out surf California


	2. Chapter 2: Preparations

Chapter 2: Preparations

At the annual state conference, everyone was venting their anger and frustrations at one another. Gunther, also known as Illinois, was being a menace to Trevor, also known as Minnesota, and Roland, also known as Upper Michigan, started a brawl between them. Rosalind, also known as Wisconsin, was completely sober, which was uncharacteristic of her, and had her face in her hands until Bruce, also known as Maryland, walked passed. She blushed and hid her face from him by face planting into the table and pretended to be suffering from a hangover. Bruce sat down in his seat amidst the chaos and sighed. William, also known as New York, was being stalked by Jessica, also known as New Jersey, which happens every conference since the first one. Aurora, also known as Alaska, was sitting in the back with a look of disgust on her face. Dustin, also known as Texas, was beating David, also known as Maine, to a pulp. Max, also known as Pennsylvania, was laughing at the dysfunctional family. Derek, also known as DC, was trying to keep order and when everything went to hell he flipped his table to gather the fifty states attentions. William was sitting at that table along with Luke, also known as New Hampshire, and had concerned faces.

Everyone stopped fighting each other mid-fight, and stared at the angry capital. Derek growled, "Can we actually get something done? Is this too much to ask, can this be the first meeting that we actually do something?" Dustin added in another punch to David's bruised face.

Rosalind stood up quickly and sighed, "Obviously no. I have been dealing with you idiots for just about two hundred years…" She looked Derek in his blue eyes and said sharply, "I'm done."

She turned to leave but Derek stood in front of her blocking her escape and clutched her shoulder, "You leave now and you leave the union. Are you sure you want to do that?" He looked worried and pale. His grip tightened but she shrugged it off as she moved slowly around him.

Rosalind turned her head to face the conference room and caught the eyes of her Midwest brothers, "If any of you want to leave with me, leave now." She took a deep breath and walked out of the room.

Derek's face twitched at that thought. The last thing they needed was a fallout between the states because of a stupid argument and idea that had torn the country in half. They don't need another civil war.

Roland left so quickly that his lower brother, Kyle, had no time to react as he left his twin. Kyle tried to follow but was held down by Trevor and Gunther; half of him was gone and he immediately felt weak and sick as Roland left the room. He fell to his knees and clutched his chest.

William left without a word and Jessica cried out for him to come back as he passed through the door frame. The rest of the commonwealth stared at where William was sitting and felt like they got punched in the gut.

Jessica was hysterical and screaming, "William, NO!" She attempted to run after him but was stopped by a nervous Derek and was dragged back to her seat and he was trying to reason with his balling sister with a shaking voice.

Dustin dropped David, who was in and out of consciousness, to the floor. He took his chance to become his own country with a wide smile.

Derek moved his head fast enough to see the tanned man leave the room. Even though he was a handful, they couldn't have lost Texas at a worse time. _Why did they leave?_ He thought to himself, _Rosalind said that she's had enough, but this makes no sense. She has said that she could do better if she was on her own, but I'd never think that she'd have the guts to leave. Roland wanted to be his own state ever since the auto boom was over, maybe he thought that he'd be alone after leaving the union…but look at his twin_ , Derek looked at the three Midwesterners that had helped their weakened brother to his knees, _He is so weak, I can only think of how Roland feels like now. Another thing that baffles me is why Will left. He seemed content…why did they do this to us?_

Aurora left quickly after Dustin. As much as she respected Alfred, she didn't want to be under anyone's power, not after being under Soviet rule. Before she left she smiled her rare smile and bolted through the open door before Derek could get up from his kneeling position in front of Jessica and stop her.

Gunther stormed up to the open door, slammed it shut angrily and growled, "We'd better get them back safely, Derek. Not halfway dead like how the South was."

"I-I know." Derek was pale and shaking but determined, "We'll get your little sister and brother back, Gunther, but there will be another Civil War and you, as well as I, will have to fight them to get them back in the union." Gunther kicked the door as Kyle passed out.

* * *

The five new nations smiled at their new found freedom. Aurora was ecstatic and had a wide grin on her face. Dustin looked more relaxed and less prone to shooting people with his revolver. Rosalind smiled at her older brother, Roland, but frowned at how pale he had become. William tightened his tie and knew that many hardships awaited all of them.

They walked to a restaurant and started to talk business after exiting the conference building.

Rosalind looked at the Upper, "So you wanted to get away from Kyle's mountain of debt, eh?"

"Yeah, Roz. I feel weak though." Roland sighed. He wiped cold sweat from his forehead, "I guess I'll get used to it."

"You look pale, Ro. I guess that because you were half of a state, you feel weak. Imagine how Alfred feels. He lost two of the bread basket Midwesterners, two of the most populated states and one of them was a large land mass, and the largest land mass in the US." Rosalind chuckled.

"That and he has a smaller population than his brother." William muttered.

"That and he took care of the finances. It was nice during the auto boom, but dragged the both of us down in the end. Just look at Detroit. Those times I wished I was either my own state or part of Wisconsin. I guess Upper Michigan leaves too many strings attached, so my country should be called Superior." Roland shrugged.

"Like the lake." Rosalind shrugged, "That works."

"Well, 'Superior', your younger sister seems to have most of it worked out. There will be many hardships but I think out immediate one is America. He won't be happy that his 'children' left the union and we are so far from one another so we can't properly help one another." William muttered.

The waitress came to the new nations and they ordered some lunch which came about five minutes later. In the meantime they pondered on what William said. It was true that being all over the country doesn't help, but Aurora has an idea.

"Well, we are fighting the strongest country in the world, but we know the layout of our countries and we have waterways. I can use the pacific ocean to my advantage and attack down the west coast if need be." Aurora shrugged, the last thing she needed was another 'overlord.'

Rosalind face palmed, "The Mississippi and the great lakes! I can smuggle supplies to you two through the waterways." She pointed to Dustin and William.

Dustin took a bite of his burger and asked crossing his arms, "So that's how that's gonna work, but how are we going to fight the strongest nation with a limited supply of ammunition and a scarce source of military vehicles?"

"I have three ductile iron factories in my care. I can change them to what we need, if need be." Rosalind smiled triumphantly and finished her cheeseburger.

"But doesn't Kiku or Ludwig own those factories, Roz?" Roland frowned and finished his soda.

"I have full capabilities to create new factories and we all have a few former U.S. military bases there. We can use them if they haven't been cleaned out already." Rosalind smiled. She was ready, but she wasn't sure about everyone else.

"We got this shit down then it seems." Aurora's face brightened.

"We still don't have any allies other than each other." William countered.

* * *

Alfred woke up with a sharp pain in his chest. He felt old, older than he should. Stumbling over his own feet he found Derek watching the news muted. As he read the scrolling headlines the origin of the pain dawned on him. It was the same pain as when the south succeeded.

The headline read 'Another Civil War?' and it showed a group of men and women with shotguns and rifles guarding one of the roads that entered Wisconsin. The women reporter was trying to interview the black clad rebels and a man with a camo face warmer and a Yugoslavian SKS on his shoulder said that the woman had to leave the premises or they will shoot.

Derek looked back at his father and muttered before he took a large swig of Samuel Adams, "You look like hell."

"W-who left?" Alfred asked winded.

Derek's lip twitched, "It wasn't the south as you can see. We lost Wisconsin, Upper Michigan, New York, Texas, and Alaska."

"Shit. Well we have to get them back." Alfred sighed as he slowly sunk into his chair. He pulled out his cellphone.

"Quickly too." Derek muttered. His speech was a little slurred and he finished his bottle.

Alfred muttered under his breath, "Why today of all days? Another civil war." He put away his cellphone and continued, "I believe that we can handle this ourselves, even before the world conference, because…" Alfred stood up quickly and pointed to himself with his thumb, "I'M THE HERO!" He then fell into his chair with a thud, breathing hard and clutching his chest.

"Don't overdo it and that's a few days from now." Derek stood up from his couch and left the room leaving his empty bottle on the coffee table.

* * *

The Rouge Nations went back to their homes and closed their borders to the U.S. and captured the military bases.

"The reporters are relentless. I'm surprised that our plan is so publicized." Rosalind told William via long range ham radio.

"We can't trust technology to keep our plans a secret. Good idea to use a ham radio with a scrambler." William said approvingly.

"What can I say, I like old shit and I'm a gun nut. These radios are 'obsolete' so no one would even think to use them. Our plans are safe for now, but we can't fight America without some heavy fire power." Rosalind said with gusto.

"We can't even look to Europe for help. They'd more likely to fight for Alfred than us, and they have their own problems. Looking to Canada would be hopeless as well." Roland butted in.

"Not Mexico either. Rosa kinda hates me." Dustin said with hesitation.

"The enemy of our enemy is our friend. Does that ring any bells?" Aurora said flinching.

"Are we going to see your dad?" William sighed disapprovingly.

"It is our only choice." Aurora sighed.

"Sadly it's true. So when." Rosalind muttered.

"Tomorrow." Aurora added, I'll call him so he knows that we're coming."


	3. Chapter 3:The Enemy of my Enemy is my

Chapter 3: The Enemy of our enemy is our friend

Aurora held her smart phone up to her ear and listened to the dial tones. It had been a while since she had even spoke with her father. She didn't hate him but she resented him for all of her childhood years in the Soviet Union.

She heard a click and a voice on the other end of the phone, "Da?"

"Dad is that you? This is Aurora and-" Aurora started and was cut off by the voice.

"You haven't called in a while, da? Are you okay?" Her father asked.

Aurora said carefully, "I'm fine, it's just…Rosalind, Roland, Dustin, William, and I have succeeded from the union and we need allies. I thought you'd be up to it."

After a brief silence her father answered, "Will I be meeting these friends of yours?" He had a happy tone, but when doesn't he have a happy tone in his voice.

"We were thinking of coming tomorrow, if that is okay by you." Aurora was choosing her words carefully.

"Da, that is okay by me." He joyfully said.

"Alright. See you tomorrow then, bye." She ended the call quickly and looked relieved; she was stressing over the call because she didn't know what kind of answer she was going to get.

The next day the five nations met at Aurora's house and shoved their bags into her plane. Once they were ready they set off for the Russian border.

The flight was uneventful and everyone was deathly silent other than the hum of the plane's engine. They either stared out the windows or slept.

Once they landed in the airport, they all could see Aurora's dad clearly at the end of the runway despite the heavy snowfall. Surprisingly Aurora and Ivan look alike but couldn't act differently or from what Aurora had told them of her father. Once they left the plane with their bags Aurora lagged behind and the others were visibly shaken, they weren't expecting that Ivan was that big.

"H-hello there, M-mr. Braginsky." Rosalind stuttered. She feels that she shouldn't be scared of one man but something was off about him.

"Oh you must be one of my daughter's friends." Ivan smiled. The one who spoke reminds him of Ludwig.

"Sis, Aurora disappeared." Roland urgently whispered to Rosalind low enough that Ivan didn't hear, "What the hell do we do?" Rosalind opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. All that she could think of was how dead they were.

"S-sir, you did see your daughter come out with us, r-right?" Dustin said stiffly. William hit him on the back of the head. "Ow, God damn it Will…" Dustin muttered rubbing the back of his head.

"Da, she'll be back, don't you worry." Ivan smiled, "Who are all of you?"

"I-I'm Rosalind the nation of Wisconsin." Rosalind tried to match his smile but turned out to be a smirk. Out of everyone, other than Aurora, she was the most ready with the cold, her home is the land of extremes after all.

"I am Dustin the nation of the great Texas." Dustin said with gusto and pointed to himself shivering. This awarded him with another slap to the back of the head from William.

"Roland's the name, umm, I'm the nation of Superior." Roland muttered. His teeth were chattering and he had his hands under his armpits trying to warm up his numb hands because he forgot his nice thermal coat at home.

"I guess I'm next. I'm William, the nation of New York." William gritted his teeth. He also had his hands under his armpits but because he completely underestimated the cold.

Aurora came up behind them and spoke in Russian to her father and they started to walk away. The other four stood there awkwardly as Aurora and Ivan walked into the building.

"Should we follow them?" William frowned. He wasn't enjoying this as much as the next person.

"Will, I think we should. I may be from Wisconsin, but this is too damn cold." Rosalind watched a cloud of her breath travel up to the heavens. They all agreed and headed to the building that Aurora walked into.

Once they opened the door they were greeted with AK's being pointed at them and the guards yelling at them in Russian. Rosalind dropped her bag on the ground and brought her arms above her head in the 'I surrender' movement. The others were too shocked to move. Ivan came into the room and said something in Russian that made them drop their weapons.

"I am very sorry about that." Ivan said like that had been a joke.

"I guess we weren't supposed to come inside then." Dustin said with a choked laugh and William hit him on the back of the head again.

"I suppose we have to apologize for our idiot 'brother's' words." William asked carefully.

"No need. You must be hungry from your trip, da? We can talk business at my home." Ivan said with his usual happy tone.

"Roz, this guy is really creeping me out." Roland whispered into his sister's ear.

"I know Ro. Just chill, no pun intended." Rosalind smiled as she whispered to her brother as she picked up her bag.

They walked to Ivan's home where two men and a child were standing there and were visibly shaking. They muttered something like, "Welcome home Russia, sir." and ran to the next room.

"Who was that?" William muttered.

"My friends Toris, Eduard, and Raivis. They come around occasionally." Ivan smiled. They all thought in unison, _More like they're forced,_ but they all kept their mouth shut. Ivan then continued, "You came because all of you need allies, da?"

"Yeah dad. The only person I thought of was you." Aurora sighed.

"Really." A rare light shone in his eyes, "That makes me happy, sunflower."

"If Alfred even thinks of attacking you five, he will have to deal with me." Ivan pulled a metal pipe out of the wall and was smiling menacingly with it on his shoulder. William and Dustin had their mouths wide open in fear, and Roland and Rosalind looked at one another in what have we done looks.

"You are on our side, correct?" Rosalind said slowly.

"Da, Rosalind was it?" He hugged her with the pipe still in his hand, nearly decapitating Roland who was right behind her. Roland moved out of the way and snickered at his sister while Rosalind paled.

"Umm…Ivan…please let go…you nearly hit my brother there with the pipe…" Rosalind said awkwardly.

"You're warm." Ivan muttered as he let go and left the room.

"Is your father always this touchy feely?" Rosalind muttered as color flowed back into her face.

"No he usually doesn't hug people he just met." Aurora frowned, "Maybe he likes you."

Rosalind took a deep breath and frowned, "That would just be weird if your dad and I had a relationship…"

"No shit Sherlock." Aurora smiled slightly, "As long as he doesn't start sharing his scarf with you it's just friendly."

"I don't think I'd enjoy almost being taken out by your dad a few more times." Roland laughed trying to shake the feeling of fear that he had since they landed.

"Get used to it if we want to remain countries. My father is strong and has a few allies so we aren't totally screwed." Aurora laughed.

"So many rare things are happening today, I can't quite handle it." Dustin joked.

"Get used to it, cowboy." William said with a grin.

"Shut up, Yankee." Dustin said with a smirk.

Ivan peeked his head out of the next room and asked, "Are you going to the world conference in three days?"

"It's that close? If we survive that long, Ivan." William said matter of fact.

"Da, you will survive, if I can do anything about it." Ivan smiled as he left the room once again. He'd never thought that he would find someone that he'd find attractive. Sighing with a smile on his face he thought, _Maybe if I protect her, my daughter, and her friends, maybe, just maybe she would hug me back._

"So are we going to leave or stay? I would hate to come home to a burning house." William said with a cocked eyebrow.

"That or your sister hiding in your house, Yankee." Dustin smiled.

"She has strange ways of pissing me off, and she is my sister." William frowned.

"And Rosalind has a crush on your bro-" Roland smiled but got hit in the back of the head by Rosalind. Roland had a look of what-did-I-do now on his face.

"Not here, not now." Rosalind scolded.

They sat down in Ivan's living room in silence until one of the Baltics wandered in, it was Raivis. He looked at the group in fear and stared at Aurora.

"S-s-sorry." He stuttered.

"Just how old is this kid. He looks younger than us." Dustin laughed.

"He's older than you and William combined." Aurora frowned.

Dustin looked confused, "Then why is he a kid?"

Aurora shrugged, "Some countries don't age like us. They stay younger for longer periods of time."

"A-a-aurora, your father w-w-would like to speak to you alone." Raivis shook uncontrollably.

"Thank you Raivis. By the way, why are you here, the Soviet Union dissolved years ago?" Aurora asked.

"We don't have a choice…y-y-you know your father." Raivis shuddered.

"So it's like signing a contract with the devil then…great." Dustin muttered and earned another slap to the head.

"I-i-i-it was a pleasure to meet all of you." Raivis nodded and almost sprinted out of the room.

Rosalind muttered, "He pretty jumpy for a little guy."

"All of the Baltics are that way." Aurora muttered as she got up from the couch, "I'll go and see what my father wants." She left the room without another word.

When she entered the kitchen her father was humming a familiar tune until she coughed.

"What is it dad?" Aurora muttered.

"Your friend Rosalind…she is a Jones, da?" Ivan halfway smiled.

Aurora said confused, "No she's a Frost. The only one who shares Alfred's last name is Will."

"Oh…"Ivan turned away from his daughter because he had the slightest blush on his face.

"Ohhhh…so you like her dad." Aurora said with a smile and noticed her dad's stiffness, "I'm not judging. I just have never seen you this way, well not since mom died."

"I don't think she likes me…" Ivan said staring at the pan he was holding.

"Well, when they came in they were already jumpy, but give them time. She has only heard what Alfred wanted them to hear and his point of view." Aurora explained, "Anyway, she has it worse than I do sometimes."

"…" He put down the pan on the oven, walked to the table and sat down with his hands in his face.

"What's wrong?" Aurora asked sitting down with him.

"I don't think your friend likes me." Ivan said muffled.

"She just met you, dad." Aurora smiled sadly. She knows that her dad finds this as awkward as she does.

Back in America, Derek, John, also known as Delaware, and Bruce formulated plans to take back the rogue nations without killing them or wounding them. So far they have had no problem finding ways to kill them, but they are determined. They will find a way.

 **Well, that didn't go exactly as planned. I am sorry if I angered any of you with this chapter, but it was fun to write it. I free to suggestions and I would really appreciate it. Thanks.**


	4. Chapter 4: Allies and Kidnappers

Chapter 4: Allies and Kidnappers

They left Russia without looking back, other than Aurora. Everyone looked relieved, especially Rosalind. That adventure couldn't end soon enough for her. Aurora looked back through the rear view window of the small plane and watched as the waiving figure of her father disappeared into the wake of the snowstorm. She smirked and knew that even if they lost the newly founded freedoms and were only states again, her father would fight tooth and nail to get them back. Even that would have its consequences…

Once they arrived back into Alaska, each of the rogue nations nodded and made way back to their countries via plane.

William couldn't get home soon enough. He feared that his mansion would be on fire and United States army and Air Force would be there to greet him, but none of this happened. Everything was just where he put it, his mansion on its lush green lawn, which is now covered in a thin layer of snow, and the glowing city of Albany in the distance.

He sighed when he opened the door and was immediately tackled. As he fell he closed his eyes and thought _I am going to die_ because he didn't want to see himself die, but when he landed with a thud on the cold concrete, he opened his eyes to take a look at his attacker. It was none other than his sister, Jessica, and his older brother, Max.

"What the hell are you two doing in my house? I thought I closed my borders to you two?" William growled through his teeth.

Jessica, who was on top of him snuggled into his neck and muttered, "I just couldn't allow my little brother go on by himself…So we decided to join you!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" William struggled under Jessica's weight, she was thin framed but she was holding him down, "Get the fuck off of me, Jess." When she did, William picked himself up and turned around, "You two should go home. I don't need the two of you joining in this and I can't help feeling that I may lose my life; I can't lose the both of you."

Max smiled and touched his younger brother's shoulder, "Maybe, my friend, you could use spies. You could use us."

"That is out of the question! And I don't need help from you loverboy!" William spat.

"Well, when you do you know where to find me." Max said alluringly as he left the property.

"Assfucker…" William growled under his breath, and he turned to Jessica, "You should go now too. If you stay here for too long, the others would think that you're on my side."

Jessica hugged him tightly, "But I don't wanna…" William's eyes softened and he hugged her back as she cried into his chest.

Once it appeared that she was no longer crying he let go and muttered, "Get out of here. Go home and be safe." Jessica looked into his eyes and nodded. As she left he couldn't help to feel that he'd need them later.

* * *

The three remaining Midwesterners sat in Kyle's home as they awaited him to reawaken. Gunther had a massive frown on his face, his brown eyes glowing with rage, and was glaring at Trevor.

"Why did we let her leave? We could have just dragged her back to her seat and we wouldn't be in this conundrum." Gunther growled.

Trevor was taken back, normally he wouldn't speak with Gunther when he is in this mood because Gunter was stronger than he and usually Gunther would start fights between the Midwestern states. "Well, Derek tried to stop her…you know our sister, she is as stubborn as the day is long. Even if we stopped her she'd slip past us and leave." Trevor tried to be reasonable.

"And that little upstart, Roland, why did we let him leave? We stopped Kyle, but look at him now; he has a fever and hasn't reawaken since we left the conference room in DC! We should just take this into our own hands, beat their asses and drag them back into the union!" Gunther boomed completely ignoring Trevor.

Kyle woke up while Gunter was yelling at the top of his lungs. He was disoriented and weak, he had no idea where he was. When his vison cleared he could see that he was in his room in his house in Detroit. The wallpaper was pealed in some places because of the debt problem and he hadn't had the time to replace it. He attempted to leave his squeaky bed and promptly rolled onto the floor.

Trevor heard the thud and rushed upstairs to see it Kyle had fallen out of bed. When he opened the door he found Kyle sprawled out on the floor with one of his arms over his face. Trevor rushed to his older brother's side and removed the arm to look into Kyle's sickly violet eyes.

"Are you okay, Kyle?" Trevor put his arm under Kyle's head and lifted it gently.

Kyle moaned softly, "Where's Ro? I need to warn him about another depression…"

"He left remember?" Trevor said calmly and confused.

"H-h-he left? Why would he-he left because of me." Kyle dropped eye contact with his kinder older brother. He felt like such a failure, he couldn't keep his family together, then he all of the sudden remembered the days before events and felt like a larger failure than ever.

Trevor noticed that Kyle's eyes were becoming distant, he smiled, "We'll get them back; don't you worry! Then you'll be stronger than ever!" He knew that it was a half lie but he didn't need his brother feeling like a piece of shit and he knew that the rogue nations/states would either come back half dead or not at all because of the first civil war. Anyway white lies never hurt no one, right?

"Yeah sure." Kyle sighed, "Rosalind left too, right? Who are we kidding, we are so screwed."

Gunther thundered into the room and saw that Kyle was awake, he had a look in his eye that he felt that he was better than his siblings, "So sleeping beauty is awake, good. Now I have a plan to get them back…"

* * *

Rosalind walked back to her house with the sun setting behind her after landing her plane in a plowed field nearby. Once she opened the gate to her property, her Holstein bull was waiting in front of her in a matter of seconds. She hugged the enormous animal, who was attempting to lick her, and walked to her farm house thinking and softly laughing, _Who needs a guard dog when you have a bull_. The bull attempted to follow her into the house but the doorway was too small for the beast. He snorted and sulked out to the yard.

She walked into the empty, giant kitchen; she was almost expecting her brothers to be sitting in her kitchen asking her what's for dinner. Sighing, she smiled at the bliss of not having any guests when she heard scratching at her door.

She ignored it until she had had enough of the noise and decided to figure out what was making the noise. Opening the blinds, she attempted to look out into the moonless night. She huffed when she could see absolutely nothing and attempted to turn on the storm light. Since the light bulb had apparently burned out she had no choice but to open the door a crack so she could see what was making the horrid scratching sound. As she opened it, she heard her bull screeching and snorting, something that only happened when Gunther was near or in the house. Her eyes went wide and she attempted to shut the door but something had busted the door open and stuck a burlap sack over her head before she could see her attacker. All that she heard was a muffled, "I'm sorry."

Gunther was literally fighting with Rosalind's bull in snow up to his thighs as Trevor dragged a squirming person out of the house. The bull fighting Illini looked back to see if Trevor needed help and the bull took its advantage and ran over Gunther. The bull then made way to attack the person that had blind folded his master. Trevor's eyes went as big as saucers and pushed Rosalind towards the house into a snow bank, as he ran full speed away from the angry bull.

Rosalind tore off the burlap sack and looked in fear that her brothers were attacking her. She whistled for the bull to come to her and he narrowly missed Trevor by inches and came to a snorting rest next to his master.

"What the hell!" Rosalind was trying to hold in her anger but some of it escaped through her voice.

"It was all Gunther's idea!" Trevor shook uncontrollably from the adrenaline leaving his body and the fear of his sister's wrath. He has never seen her this angry before.

Gunther stood up and held his ribcage and a glint of malice entered his eyes, "You and your damn animal…" He tried to take a step closer but winced and Rosalind could see that there was a glint of blood coming out of the corner of his mouth, "This idea was supposed to work! You were supposed to be a good prisoner and be taken back to DC and _beg_ to be re-entered as a state of the union, not have your damn animal attack us!"

"Gunther…it's not worth it…let's go home and-" Trevor started but was cut off by Gunther attempting to run at Rosalind. He had his hand that wasn't clutching his ribcage up and was attempting to punch Rosalind in the face. She expertly dodged the high blow and tripped him. His face smashed into the concrete of her walkway and he didn't get up; Rosalind expected him to get up but when he didn't get up she assumed that he was passed out.

"Take him home, Trevor. Don't try this again, I don't want to hurt you or the others." Rosalind slowly walked up to her house and Trevor could only watch his older sister with respect.

* * *

Roland sat down in his home and still wasn't feeling right. He made himself some hot chocolate and sat in front of a fire. He wasn't sure if he was still cold from the adventure in Russia, or if it still was the separation of him and his twin. The cold of his state, or is it now country, this confused him still, didn't really bother him.

His landline phone rung, he wrapped up in his blanket and looked at the caller ID, it was Kyle. He smiled and almost picked up the phone, but thought against it. He slowly walked back to the fire and listened to the voicemail.

"Hey, it's me Kyle…I've been trying to call your cell, but you haven't picked up. I'm worried about you. I know you are listing to this call and I want to know why. I feel like a failure and Gunther and Trevor went to Wisconsin to take back Rosalind." The voicemail echoed his brother's voice and Roland ran up to the phone and once again almost picked up, but his hand stayed on the phone and he was breathing hard. He was afraid that they had captured Rosalind, then the voicemail continued, "They came back a few hours ago and Gunther looks like he got ran over by a train. It's actually funny. Trevor looks like he wants to hide in a corner and cry. It's pitiful of what our family has been reduced to, please come home. I'll try to be a better brother. Okay, bye."

The call ended and Roland felt sick and he knew what was coming and he ran up to his bathroom and emptied the contents of his stomach.

* * *

Dustin happily sat in his ranch home watching the stars with his brown Texas longhorn bull. He had a coffee in his hand and was enjoying the warmth of his country. He hated snow and the few times that he had to deal with it. He's just glad that no one had decided to attack him while he wasn't home, but then again they would have gotten the horns of his bull.

His phone then went off and he checked the caller ID, it was Rosalind. He answered it and asked, "You know how late it is here?"

Her voice was a little shaking, he couldn't tell if it was fear or anger, "My idiot brothers decided to fucking attack me. I know my brothers are dumbasses but watch yourself, I don't know if your siblings are that stupid."

"They attacked you? How, in the name of God, did they attack you?" Dustin said confused, he thought that Wisconsin was the safest country next to Alaska.

She went over the details and said, "So just watch yourself. I know I won't be caught with my pants down again. Next time they are getting warning shots."

He chuckled, "Yeah, I'll watch myself…have fun." His mind went straight into the gutter.

"Shut the fuck up, Dustin." She said as she hung up the phone, then he started to laugh loudly.

* * *

Aurora couldn't help but to feel that something was very wrong. She sat down on her couch thinking if allying herself and her friends with her father and that her father had a crush on Rosalind. She decided to try the ham radio that Rosalind had given her and tuned up before she left for Wisconsin. The first person she called out to was Rosalind.

She answered quicker than what Aurora could have thought, "Yeah, what is it Aurora?"

"Is everything alright?" Aurora said carefully.

"Oh, just peachy keen. My brothers decided to come by and say hello with a burlap sack." Rosalind was on the verge of punching something.

"They tried to kidnap you?" Aurora couldn't believe her ears, the civil war has already started to her.

"Well yes, but before you get any ideas, they failed and it was Gunther's idea, so I'm not surprised that it failed. My bull is a lifesaver." Rosalind let out a deep breath.

"So he wasn't told by Alfred to kidnap you? You had me on the idea that this was the beginning of the second civil war." Aurora muttered.

"No, I think Derek and his lackeys would have been with the bastard. I can't believe that Trevor was there. I think Gunther made him come because Kyle couldn't." Rosalind groaned as if she was relaxing.

"Okay, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay, have you checked in with Dustin, Will, and Roland?" Aurora asked.

"Just with Dustin, I'll check in with Will and Ro tomorrow. It's too late today." Rosalind said as she voiced out. Aurora sighed looked at the time and decided to go to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5: War and the World Conference

Chapter 5: War

Chapter 5: War and the World Conference

The next day Rosalind had called William and Roland and they had told them of the events of the last evening. Everyone was shocked that Gunther was that desperate, but relieved that he failed. Rosalind decided to keep Trevor out of the picture because he probably was forced to go along with Gunther's plan. They decided to have their own conference and to figure out strategies of fighting for their independence.

* * *

Derek had called an emergency conference to put more heads together, which was a very bad idea.

Gunther was surprisingly the first to come and was dragging Trevor and Kyle behind him. He looked like he hit by a train. Kyle looked as sick as he was two days ago, and Trevor looked jumpy.

Next was John, also known as Delaware, came in and had a fit because he wasn't the first person in conference room other than Derek. His lime green eyes clouded, he bit his lip and balled his fist.

"What the hell are the Midwestern states doing here before MEEEEEEE?" John screamed.

Gunther was much taller than John and towered over the state after dropping Trevor and Kyle, "Calm your tits boy, or I will give you something to cry about."

"It's not fair! You live farther away than I do and I am the first state, you ignorant fool!" John's face was beet red.

"Not by much my dear friend." Max walked in with his usual smile, "And I would imagine stepping away from that overgrown gorilla, John."

"Who the hell are you calling gorilla, you assclown!?" Gunther boomed.

Trevor said softly, "Calm down, we're trying to get back Roz and Ro without killing them, Gunther."

"Don't tell me what to do!" Gunther growled as he turned to his little brother, he then grabbed the smaller state's shoulders and picked him up to his eyelevel. His brown eyes had an uncontrollable rage burning in them, "You say that again and I will kick your ass into next week, understand?"

"O-okay, put me down Gunther, I get the idea and you are crushing my shoulders…"Trevor said shaking. Gunther has gotten angry before but not this angry. Gunther realized what he was doing in a blind rage, dropped Trevor, and stormed out of the room hanging his head.

Kyle said while trying to hold himself up on the edge of Derek's table, "What's gotten into him?"

Gunther slammed the door and started to cough violently. He took his hand away from his mouth and found it speckled with blood, he then punched the wall hard enough to crack it. Clutching his chest, his shoulder grazed the wall as he took a few steps forward. He slid down the wall, cried softly in pain, held his broken ribs and coughed raggedly.

"He got ran over by Rosalind's bull. I think he broke a few ribs, but he wouldn't let me see. He just as stubborn as Roz sometimes, especially when he's hurt." Trevor said to anyone who was listening.

Derek grabbed Trevor's shirt collar and spat into his face, "When did this happen?"

"I should go see if he's okay, Derek." Trevor's face paled.

"He'll be fine. When did you go?" Derek said shaking with rage.

"His ribs are broken, Derek. It doesn't matter when we went to Roz's house." Trevor said quickly.

"It does, Trevor. Tell me now, or I swear that I will beat it out of you." Derek threatened.

"I-I don't quite remember, heh, funny right?" Trevor smiled slightly and Derek cracked his fist. Trevor stuttered, "Y-yesterday. W-w-we went yesterday…after dark…t-t-the plan was t-to capture Roz and-and make her rejoin the Union…"

Derek smiled and let go of the youngest Midwestern state, "There was that so bad?" Trevor had tears running down his face and ran out to find Gunther.

He found Gunther pretty much in a ball coughing up blood. Trevor softly put his hand on his eldest brother's chest and received a muffled cry of pain and more violent coughing. Trevor dragged Gunther to his feet and dragged his nearly unconscious brother to the infirmary.

"That was uncalled for, Derek." Kyle said shaking from exhaustion. He can't keep himself up for much longer.

"I did what was necessary, and you need to sit down." Derek was trying to calm himself down. Max and John stared in horror of what their older brother was going to do.

"You keep on telling yourself that and hoping that will make you feel better." Kyle snarled. He finally collapsed with his back to the table and stared at Derek with a look of malice.

"What is going on, Derek?" Max clutched his older brother's shoulder softly.

"Don't touch me!" Derek growled and glared at Max. The look in his eyes was not his own. Max slowly backed up with his arms lazily over his head. Derek then sprinted out of the room surprising everyone.

* * *

"-and that should be the plan." Rosalind finished. The meeting was at Rosalind's house because of the attack by her brothers.

Roland muttered, "Guerrilla warfare? Most wars were won because of it…yeah I'd agree."

"We will use whatever works, Alfred will find that New Yorkers are difficult to keep down." William said with a straight face.

"Same here, but I don't think that I will be attacked anytime soon and we have my father to help us fight." Aurora muttered.

"And so it begins." Rosalind frowned. She didn't want to fight her brothers, but she got to do what she has got to do, "But I refuse to fire the first shot."

William muttered, "They will, I'm sure of it."

* * *

Alfred walked with a slight hunch into the conference room to talk to Derek about how the plans were going but walked into Kyle on the ground and John and Max with shocked faces.

"What happened, dudes?" Alfred said with a usual grin but with less light in his eyes.

"Derek went completely bat shit crazy after Gunther almost attacked Trevor. It seems the boy was the target of both their rage." John muttered shaking his head.

"Okay, Derek usually doesn't lose his cool that fast. That's uncharacteristic of him." Alfred walked over to the semi-conscious Kyle, "You okay dude?"

"I'll be fine, I'm more worried about Trevor and Gunther. Gunther has broken ribs and Trevor is probably scared out of his mind." Kyle attempted to get up, but his legs couldn't hold him, "I would go check up on them but I can barely move as is." Alfred lifted the weak state and partially dragged him out of the room.

"Did you see where your brothers went?" Alfred asked.

"If I know Trevor he would have found Gunther and took him to the infirmary." Kyle said sleepily. The nation dragged the state to the infirmary because he could tell that he was much weaker without those four and a half states. There they found Gunther on the gurney, passed out, and Trevor rubbing his head. Alfred dropped the state off in the infirmary and went on a hunt for his capital.

He found the capital hiding under the staircase in the conference hall with his face in his hands and his shoulders hitching occasionally.

"Are you okay, dude?" Alfred said as he inched slowly closer to Derek.

Derek pulled his head up from his hands and looked into Alfred's blue eyes with his puffy blue eyes, "Does it look like I'm okay? I almost hurt one of my brothers and friends."

"You're just stressed, dude. This is another civil war and we don't want a repeat of last time, other than us winning, though." Alfred smiled reassuringly and not losing enthusiasm.

"Aren't you worried that the south will leave also? What about the rest of the Midwest, the west? With one state leaving, more follow, don't you remember that in the last civil war?" Derek growled.

"No! I don't think anyone else will leave, because they need me because I'm the hero!" Alfred boomed pointing to himself.

Derek looked he was done with talking to his elder, "That's what you said last time! Look how it turned out, the bloodiest war in the United States history! Can you be any more idiotic than you are being? We have to get them back, right away, not waiting for the states to agree, not waiting for congress, not waiting for the president, we have to strike the first blow. Just then maybe we can just get this to blow over and pretend they never left."

"What are you taking about, dude? It's not like the states have their own armies, hahaha! That is the most ridiculous thought!" Alfred laughed ignorant of the fact that all of them had amassed an army for each newly formed country.

"Did you not see the black clad rebels in Wisconsin? They're organized and there's a lot more of them than we are thinking." Derek frowned.

Alfred let this sink in, then spoke, "How do you know this, dude? Don't tell me that you have been spying on them?"

"No, but Trevor and Gunther decided to take a rendezvous, they went to Wisconsin to attempt to capture Rosalind. No doubt that they'd gone for Roland, too, if they had the chance. Gunther got ran over by her bull and broke his ribcage. I have never seen the beast, but I know that Dustin has one, too. Trevor was unscathed, that means that Rosalind let them go…why did she do that? She could have captured two more states and became stronger, but she let them go." Derek said confused.

"That doesn't make any sense…unless-" Alfred smiled at the thought of a controversy theory.

"NO! Maybe she didn't want to fire the first shot." Derek smiled demonically and said to no one in particular, "That sounds like you my friend, you better watch out now."

"Dude, you are starting to freak me out…" Alfred looked concerned for his capital's sanity.

The two of them walked into the conference room to utter disarray. States were attacking each other and arguing. Alfred whistled loudly and the states stopped what they were doing and stared at the nation.

"We are here to figure out how to get your siblings and friends back into the union, without killing or almost killing them, dudes. Now put your heads together-not literally, Rebeca and John-and let's figure out how to do that!" Alfred smiled enthusiastically.

* * *

The next day, the day of the world conference, William heard gunfire. At first he disregarded the noise as his militia army practicing, then realized that they were coming from right outside his door. He quickly put on his ragtag militia uniform and his World War 2 M1 Grand from the toe of his bed and sprinted out of the room as artillery fire blew up part of his bedroom.

"That was expensive." William huffed as he stepped out of his house. He looked at the flurry plagued battle field. Bodies littered his pristine lawn from both sides, US military fighter jets attacked his ground units with automatic fire, his ragtag army wasn't ready for this surprise attack and they were running for cover in his shed, garage, and remains of his house, choppers filled the sky raining metal death from their artillery guns. Looking back at his house, he could see that it was smoking and on fire. Rage entered his normally calm eyes and he pulled out the militia men that were hiding in his house just before that it collapsed.

Since his gun his a single shot he fired rounds without the help of an automatic weapon at the choppers. One by one the birds fell out of the sky like burning fireballs.

The jets were a different problem, they were fast, agile, and deadly. He attempted to shoot at their engines and managed to shoot down one or two as a missile exploded next to him and he flew ten feet into the air.

* * *

Rosalind was checking in on the rogue nations at the hotel in England and thought it was weird that William wasn't picking up. Everyone had that same suspicion because he was always the first to call back through the radio.

"This is weird…" Dustin muttered, "What happens if he's being attacked?"

"Normally the United States doesn't attack capitals first, so if he was being attacked he'd call us." Rosalind sighed, "But if by some odd chance I'm wrong, there fighting for the quick win because all of our homes are close to the capitals."

"I can't shake this bad feeling that something bad is going on over there." Roland said concerned for their friend's safety.

"If we don't see him at the world conference in England in a couple of hours, I will personally kick Alfred's ass all the way back to DC and then some." Aurora growled. She plans to keep that promise.

* * *

At the world conference, four of the rogue nations knew that even though that they weren't recognized countries and the world thought that they were still states all eyes were upon them.

Arthur was the first to speak up, "Alfred, why did you bring four of your states? I thought we had talked about this at an earlier conference."

"We are no longer part of the Union, so we thought why not come to the world conference." Dustin looked at Arthur and Alfred with a smirk, "And we are missing one. Alfred, you have some explaining to do."

"Is this true?" Arthur grinned at his former colony.

"I'm not going to tell you four." Alfred looked hurt. He wasn't planning on them coming.

"We have some unfinished business, Alfred. If you hurt William I will kill you." Aurora didn't like this wild goose chase.

Ludwig looked confusingly at the former states and Alfred and then said, "What? Why are your states here?"

"I thought we just went over this, we aren't with him. We are new nations and are currently fighting a war with the fatass. And for the record I made hamburgers first and what you eat isn't even beef." Rosalind growled, and then William hobbled in.

 **This is the Author, I'm still up for suggestions. Please post reviews 'cause I really appreciate them. Writing this chapter was actually fun, but sorry that it got dark. War is a dark subject you know. Wisconsin was the first state to 'create' the hamburger that we all know and love (according to my sources, don't actually know if that is true, but it was a good come back for Rosalind). I hope you have as much fun as I am writing this story. Thanks! (PS Fixed the scene shifts because they were difficult to follow. For some reason my word processor and fanfiction don't like each other and don't put in the line breaks. Sorry about that).**


	6. Chapter 6: Blood in the Snow

Chapter 6: Blood in the Snow

Earlier, William woke up on top of the rubble of his house covered in a layer of fine snow. He felt like he couldn't move, cold, and didn't quite feel like himself. When he found out he could move, which was a bad idea, his legs were broken beyond his belief. Luckily for him he couldn't feel the pain. He looked down at his body and found a ragged stake of wood had pierced the lower half of his belly; that's when he felt the pain.

He laid there for what seemed an eternity watching his breath float up to the heavens, when two dark shadows appeared over him. Not having the energy to move, he didn't move and didn't close his eyes. One of them was talking to the other, but he couldn't hear. The two figures leaned over him and he smiled recognizing them; they were Max and Jessica.

The both of them couldn't believe that William was still alive. He looked so broken, but they were thrilled that he hadn't lost the fire that burned deep within his eyes; he hadn't lost hope. They decided not to remove the stake so he wouldn't lose too much blood and were careful picking him up because his legs were shattered.

They carried him speaking soft, encouraging words to him, though he didn't hear them or remember what occurred during this time frame, out to Max's truck to patch him up. When they put him down he muttered something like, "It doesn't hurt; I can walk," but Jessica didn't let their delusional brother even move as Max grabbed some casting tape and some crutches out of the truck. As they wrapped his broken legs he passed out for a matter of time out of pain.

When he woke up he could remember having a missile blowing up near him and thought if he was a human he would already be dead. It took him a few seconds to figure out what was going on and tried to pick himself up too quickly. The wooden stake was still in his belly and he puked up a little blood. Max and Jessica were over at the front of the truck and they sprinted to the bed when they felt the truck move. They stared at the wounded nation as he stared back at them.

"What are you doing here?" William rasped wiping the blood weakly from his face only to smear it, "If Alfred figures out that you are here helping me, you'll be branded traitors too."

"We don't care. We heard the choppers and jets when they passed over and we knew that Derek wanted to attack you guys where it would hurt you the most. Look around little brother." Jessica said with concern in her eyes as she took out a handkerchief and wiped the smeared blood from his face. William was helped up far enough to see the city and he looked in horror at Albany. The city was glowing, but not by lights, by fire. Smoke lifted off of the broken city making it look post-apocalyptic.

His face turned into a snarl, "Father will pay for this…take me to England."

"But brother-" Jessica started.

"No buts. If Alfred wants to fight dirty, I'm game." He stared at the ruins of Albany with malice, "Max, get this stake out."

Max said concerned, "You would bleed out in a matter of minutes. I suppose I could be able to sew it up before them but you need to calm down."

"You can do it once we are far enough to not see the smoke from my capital." William growled.

Max backed off with a sigh, "Let's get him away from this, Jess. It's not worth to argue with him when he's like this." They both gently pushed him deeper into the open bed of the truck and closed the latch. Jessica jumped in the back to make sure that William wasn't being thrown around and Max drove his truck out of the corpse covered lawn towards the airport.

Once at the airport, William had calmed down enough to ask what time it was. The sun had already set and Jessica said that it was past six in the evening. He swore and knew that he was going to be late to meet the other rogue nations before the world conference.

"Well, you can't fly yourself there anyhow in your condition." Max said gesturing to William's broken legs after popping up from the driver's side.

"The others don't know that I'm okay, too." William had calmed down, but didn't look well, disregarding the broken legs and wooden stake within him.

"We should get that stake out, Will." Max jumped up onto the bed of the truck and set down the first aid next to William, "Are you ready? We'll have to flip you over because the bottom is larger than the top and I don't want to make the hole bigger than it is now."

William nodded and the two of them slowly rolled him onto his side facing the passenger's side of the bed. Max grabbed the thicker part if the stake that wasn't completely within his younger brother's belly and slowly pulled it out. This made the new nation groan in pain and blood flow freely out of his mouth and the hole on both sides. This was making the wood become slick but it didn't leave the older states hands because he knew if he slipped the new nation would be in more pain than he is now.

Once the stake was out of William, he had already passed out from the pain and blood loss. Max looked at the damage the stake had done and he was surprised that William was still alive. He patched up the nation to the best of his abilities and with the equipment that he had, but he knew that William needed a hospital, but he also needed to be at the conference with his allies. He made the choice and took him to the nearest city's hospital.

* * *

William woke up in a white gown in a white room. He thought he was dead but looked up at machines. He thought, _How did I get here? Wait, Max and Jessica must have driven me to another city. I thought that I told them to get me to England; you two had one job…or was I too injured to be transported there? Maybe…_ He tried to lift himself off the bed but found that he had been tied in with Velcro. _Great they put me in a mental asylum thanks guys_. William thought as the door opened revealing Max, Jessica, and a doctor.

"You're alive!" Jessica cried as she ran up to him and buried her face into his chest.

William raised one eyebrow and Max shrugged, "Well, my friend, I didn't think a trip into England would be the best for you in your condition."

The doctor needed to look at the wound and undid the Velcro straps restraining William, and Max pried Jessica off of William. The doctor opened the already loose hospital gown and William instinctively batted down the fabric. Scolding the nation, William let the doctor open up to see that the wound was much better than it should be. The doctor shook his head and said that it looks good enough that he could go home.

When the doctor left the room, William sighed to Max, "The doctor was a human obviously."

"Well, you healed faster than a state could. I guess that being a nation makes you a bit tougher." Jessica said blushing. William realized his sister, that stalked him from the day he was born, was in the room when the doctor removed part of the hospital gown. His face grew steadily red.

"Let's get out of here, quickly and get me in that damn plane to England." He found a clock on the wall and the clock read that it was midnight, "England is a seven hour flight and they're five hours ahead of us. I am going to be late but I won't let that fool get the best of me."

Max dragged Jessica out of the room and left a tux for William on the bed. As William put on the new clothes, he found a note between the undershirt and coat. He set the note on the bed next to him and struggled to fit the pants over the casts.

On the side of the bed laid two crutches and he hobbled to the door to get Max to help him. Once he opened the door a crack, he called out for Max, who came promptly to the door.

"What is it, my friend?" Max smiled through the crack.

"I can't get the pants over the damn casts." William said embarrassed.

Max smiled, "I don't think you need that much cast anymore because of your magical healing capabilities."

"Don't mock me, Max. Just help me." William frowned. Max shrugged and entered the room to see William in his boxers, "Don't just stand there staring at me. Help me, Max." Max softly laughed and took out a pocket knife. He quickly cut through the casts and found that William's legs were still heavily bruised but he could walk on them for short amounts of time without crutches. Max shrugged and left the room with a wide smile on his face.

William frowned and shook his head as he gingerly put the demonic pants stuffing the note into one of the pockets, and the rest of the outfit on. He knew that Max had a big mouth, but he wasn't sure what his brother said was true or fantasy. Maybe that was why most other states ignored the Pennsylvanian, which is good for him and his allies if they were to use him as a spy. His sister on the other hand would not want to leave him alone, which is a bad thing, but keeps to herself, other than the high social life she has on the side.

He limped out of the room with the crutches and followed his siblings to the truck. A light powdery snow fell from the starless sky as they loaded themselves into the truck to drive to the airport where William kept his private plane.

Once at the airport, he limped to his plane and waved goodbye to his siblings before he disappeared into the plane. He started it and flew off after informing the command tower that there was a small private plane leaving to London. There it was an uneventful flight, and he landed in England without a hitch. He, then, caught a cab and ended up at the world conference.

* * *

William muttered his apologies and explained the events leading up to him standing in front of the world conference. Rosalind looked like she was going to kill Alfred along with the rest of the rogue nations and Ivan had a purple aura flowing around him, a smile on his face, and the metal pipe of pain in his hand. Everyone just stared at the New Yorker in confusion, other than the nations next to Ivan that were slowly backing away from him with horror on their faces.

"It wasn't my fault, dude." Alfred said with gusto, "You brought this upon yourselves."

"You nearly killed him, shits for brains. Your own son, you really didn't think this through." Dustin growled while cracking his knuckles.

"The hero always protects the weak." Alfred said with his smile faltering.

"You keep on saying that, I hope it makes you feel better. I'm sure that your army killed everyone, who wasn't fast enough to run away, in Albany in cold blood. There's blood in the snow and it leads straight to you, _dad_." William spat.

"No, you have the wrong idea." Alfred said with a forced smile, "I wasn't trying to do that, I'm the hero after all. I was trying to capture Albany, not burn it to the ground. What is the use of a deserted broken city?"

"I'm sure you killed Albany, too; Rose was your grandchild." William almost forgot to check up on her; she was probably weak, if she was alive at all. His phone, he only way for him to contact her, was destroyed in his ruined manor.

"You adopted her, dude." Alfred was trying to keep the blame off of him.

"Doesn't make her any less family, Alfred." Rosalind said almost puffing up.

"What does that make us to you, Alfred? Just some people that get in your holier-than-thou way?" Roland snarled.

"I-I didn't mean that." Alfred stuttered.

"I don't mean to interrupt this loving family chat, but what does this have to do with the five 'new nations.'" Arthur butted in. He had met the New Yorker before, but it was on the battlefield during the Revolutionary War long before he was even recognized as a state.

"We're at war with the dumbass, British man, and he ain't family, not to most of us." Dustin growled as he got hit in the back of the head by William.

"Were you even listening during the beginning, cowboy? His name's Arthur and he's the host nation." William hissed through his teeth to Dustin.

"Oooh…Sorry about that, Arthur." Dustin laughed nervously, then whispered to William, "Yankee, how would have I known his name? The damn meeting just started." William shrugged.

"Dad, can you say something?" Aurora said through her teeth. She was trying to stay calm, but it was hard with the elephant in the room.

"I have recognized them, da. They are allies of mine." Ivan said smiling and walking up to his daughter. Alfred's eyes widened and he thought with fear, _How could anyone be that desperate for allies that they'd ally themselves with that commie?_

"That's great, Ivan, but the world conference hasn't recognized them yet. To us they are just states." Alfred smiled nervously.

"You don't get a choice, Alfred. If you are in war with them, you are in war with me, da." Ivan looked like even he was forcing a smile.

"C-can you, the 'new nations,' and Alfred please leave the room, Ivan." Arthur frowned. The rogue nations shrugged and followed Ivan out of the conference room. They heard a lot of talking, then sounds of brawls and Ludwig yelling for order on the other side of the door. Rosalind slightly smiled, temporarily forgetting her fury at Alfred, and thought of how much this reminded her of the state's conference. Ivan saw this and his forced smile softened at her temporary bliss. Aurora looked at her father and smiled at his rare moment of weakness. Dustin, Roland, and William were angrily standing around Rosalind and Aurora protectively. Alfred was staring at his former states and Ivan in fear because they outnumber the hero of everything.

As noon came, the other nations left for lunch making a wide birth around Ivan and the rogue nations. Arthur muttered to the rogue nations, "No one can get a clear answer from anyone. I bid you luck with your war, I think you five should leave if you don't want to be standing around all day."

"What you aren't going to help me, Arthur? Not that the hero needs any help." Alfred was shocked for a few seconds then switched to his hero routine.

"This is your problem, Alfred." Arthur frowned.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Arthur, again." William smiled painfully. Arthur nodded and left the six of them, Alfred disappeared after being turned down for help.

"So the dumbfuck decided to make his fatass disappear." Dustin muttered looking at were Alfred was ten seconds ago, then his stomach growled loudly, "Let's get some food." He almost literally dragged the rest of the group to the cafeteria. They all shrugged and decided to get food.

After they all got food, obviously not made by Arthur, they all sat down at a round table. Rosalind sat next to Roland, who in turn sat next to William, who was next to Dustin, then Aurora, and Ivan. Ivan wanted to sit next to Rosalind, because of his crush, and his daughter.

"So, Alfred attacked you, da?" Ivan said with a generally happy tone.

"Yeah, I didn't watch it all, but I fought the best I could. Apparently it wasn't enough, the city is a ruined husk that it became. I know that a lot of people died, just about all of the population, and I was hit by a missile by a jet. What they were doing was overkill." William grinded his teeth.

"Oh…" Ivan cocked his head and frowned, "He usually doesn't slaughter everyone in a city or even attack the capital."

"This is the only time I've ever seen you frown, Ivan. Will, are you sure they were Untied States army, choppers and jets?" Roland aske the elder nation.

"I'm sure. They had the flag on the back and all of the army personnel had the standard uniform on. If they weren't US army then what would they be? They weren't my people or my siblings' people, in a sense." William stroked his chin.

"Posers?" Dustin shrugged.

"With jets and choppers, that totally makes sense, Dustin. Thanks for putting your two cents in. were they newer jets and choppers, or did they look older?" Rosalind asked after swallowing a mouthful of food.

"Newer. It wasn't like Vietnam war choppers were shooting at my house with explosive artillery rounds." William said with a frown.

"Alfred spilt the first blood, now it's about time we start defending our countries." Aurora said and added, "If you need me, contact me. Oh and dad, Rosalind should be able to hook up a long range radio that has a long enough band range to connect to ours, right Roz."

"Yeah, it shouldn't be hard really. I got ours up and running. Will, I suppose you can't salvage the radio out of your mansion?" Rosalind said to William and he shook his head. Rosalind added with a smile, "I'll just rig another one up for you. No problem at all."

"How many do you have!?" Roland stared in horror at his sister.


	7. Chapter 7: In Madness, Clarity

Chapter 7: In Madness, Clarity

 **Thanks for reviewing: DelphiniumSweets, Sami-chan98, and mylittleponyprincess785. Really appreciate it!**

Back in DC at the emergency state conference, Max and Jessica had just came back to the capital from helping William. Everyone wasn't allowed to leave so the group set up cots in the conference room. The main Midwest group, the whole three of them slept on their cots in a triangle near the middle of the room. The other Midwest states, Amber, the personification of Ohio, Tomas, the personification of Indiana, Jake, the personification of Iowa, Earl, the personification of North Dakota, and Emily, the personification of South Dakota were around the main in their respective areas. The plains group, Robert, who is Kansas, Adam, who is Montana, Kelly, who is Nebraska, and Victoria, who is Wyoming, slept near the Midwestern states. The Northwest and Southwest states slept near them on the western side. The eastern side was dominated by the south and north eastern states.

Max and Jessica meandered through the maze of cots to find three open ones there, which confused them to no end. Suddenly Derek was behind them and asked, "How did your little trip go?"

The both of them jumped and stared at their older brother. Max then answered a little quickly, "It was good, just needed some time from this place." He rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Did you find what you wanted?" Derek picked up on his flinch gaze.

"Uhh…no…we didn't. Now I'm sure it's going to be a long day today seeing that it is past three in the morning, so we should go to bed, right Max?" Jessica smiled wearily.

"You both are lying. I want a full report on what you did." Derek frowned and stared into each of their eyes.

"I…I don't know-" Max started but Derek cut him off.

"You do. The both of you slipped out as father was telling us of his plan. I saw you two leave. Before you say anything, I know it wasn't to the bathroom. I can see the snow on your coats and shoes. Did you warn William? Our scouts couldn't find him and when he was fighting, he was a fucking sharpshooter. Well, until he was hit by a missile, but that's beside the point. Where were you?" Derek got close to their faces and as he was talking, his voice got more strained. Jessica was hiding behind Max, so Derek was more in Max's face.

"We have no idea what you are talking about, Derek." Jessica whimpered.

"Yes you do. I know you, Jess. You love the man to the moon and back. You'd do anything for him. Max you're too soft hearted to not give the poor man a heads up. Now tell me what I want to know and the three of us can go to sleep." Derek grinned demonically.

"No we didn't find my brother, but the odds are that, that missile killed him…" Jessica trailed off and cried into her brother's back.

Max turned around and held the crying state, "You are an asshole, you know. Now will you just leave us alone? When we got there, there was nothing left but burning buildings." Max growled.

Derek apparently pleased with the answer left the younger states, and he thought of a fitting punishment for the two misbehaving states.

Jessica lifted her head from Max's chest, eyes dry, and whispered, "Is he gone?" Max nodded and Jessica smiled, "So he got what he wanted then. He mustn't know that William is alive and well, but angry as hell."

"Yes, my little sister, but let's go to sleep. I fear what Derek has in mind for the two of us. We may be branded traitors." Max smiled sadly. They nodded and went to sleep on the cots.

The next day, Max woke up and realized he wasn't in the conference room. Next to him on his right lay Jessica. He tried to speak but quickly realized that a gag was placed across his mouth to prevent him from waking up his sister. He squirmed on the bed and found that he was trapped, much to the irony that William was stuck in earlier that day.

Derek smiled like a madman when he entered the room. He had forced the other states to see this, especially his siblings; he wanted them to know what the consequences was for aiding the traitors. Placing them in a small room with a thick window overlooking the scene, he was sure that the others would be too afraid to defy him or his father.

Smiling to himself he announced, "These two helped the traitor, William. Do you want to know what happens when one of you misbehaves?" He held down Max's right hand and immobilized the ring finger and boomed, "You lose a finger!"

A gutting knife appeared in his hand and was about to slice off that appendage until David placed his hand upon his shoulder. The grey haired state smiled wearily, "I don't think you should do that."

"HOW IN THE NAME OF GOD DID YOU GET DOWN HERE!?" Derek screamed at the top of his lungs, eyes darting from the unbroken glass back to his smiling little brother.

"I just did." His blue eyes quickly looked at the bonds that held Max and the now awake and afraid Jessica. He smashed his elbow into Derek's face, knocking out the taller capital, "Maybe that will knock some sense into you." David picked up the gutting knife and quickly cut the bonds that held the two states hostage. Jessica smiled and hugged the confused state.

Max patted him on the back and asked, "How did you get down here, on minute it was only Derek and then poof, you're here being a badass."

"I have no idea…" David grinned softly as he put the knife in his front pants pocket, "How do we get out of here?"

Max looked like he was going to say something and looked at the knocked out capital. Patting down the capital, he found the keys to the room on a lanyard in a pants pocket.

They unlocked the door and was greeted by a hoard of excited states. If they could have they could have picked up David and carried him out of there, but the hallway was too small, so they resorted to dragging him deep into the hoard. Max and Jessica chuckled at the uncomfortable state's face, it was a mixture of happiness and fear.

Once the hoard dissipated, David looked like he was trying to comprehend what just happened. Max guided the poor state out of hallway, after giving Jessica the lanyard to lock the door with Derek within the room.

Sometime after the incident, three states were being used every hour to watch the capital and see if he became the strict, not psychopathic, capital that he was truly. They all hoped that he became normal before Alfred came home from the world conference.

Max decided to find out for himself and walked to the observation deck where Amber, Emily, and Earl were watching the raging capital with frowns on their faces.

"He's still psychopathic?" Max asked sadly.

"Yep, he's been at it for the past hour." Amber said sighing, "Does that guy ever stop fighting and tell that he's not getting out until he calms down.

"Well, he's been acting weird since big sis left. Now he's just like a caged animal." Emily said as Earl stared at the crazed capital.

"The stress must have been eating at him for the past three days and now he has finally lost it." Max sighed and said, "William is alive."

"Well, that's good for you. You know where your younger brother is, but we have no idea where Roz is. We can't contact her without drawing suspicion to ourselves." Amber sighed. The twins nodded their heads looking back at the raging capital.

"Does he need to be alone? Not saying that I'd go down there. That man is nuttier than a fruit cake. I just mean that how does he cope with stress; we got to be the rowdiest group of people out there and he always looks like he's going to blow a gasket." Emily asked and covered her twin brother's mouth before he could say anything that would make no sense.

"I have no idea." Max said after a long pause.

* * *

The rogue nations went home after their lunch with Ivan. Rosalind somehow had brought two ham radio with her and after tinkering with them to allow for the extended range, she gave one to Ivan with a warm smile and carried one to William's plane. William rejected their requests for him to stay with him until Albany and his house was rebuilt.

He wanted to be alone and figure out a strategy to counter the United States army and air force; he didn't want a repeat of the Albany Massacre or that is what he has been calling the slaughter. Rosalind was building some new factories to make her own bullets, replacement parts for her guns, military vehicles and jets that would rival Boeing. Dustin and his bull was waiting for the army to come marching down and use the unfamiliar terrain to his advantage. Aurora and Ivan were waiting for the call from her allies to attack with the jets that she had "found" in an "abandoned" military encampment. Roland had gained a lot of strength compared from the days before. He waited to help his sister down south if needed and for the navy and marines to come up the St. Lawrence and the great lakes.

Two days passed without an attack from America and this worried the rogue nations, except Rosalind who was busy working day and night to create the factory as quickly as possible. They feared that the army was waiting just out of their borders and that this was a waiting game. Hoping that the army had just given up, but they knew better; Alfred doesn't give up that easy.

* * *

When Alfred left the world conference and came home he found one of two things that were off; one Derek wasn't home and the states weren't at their houses yet. He walked to the conference hall and found that Eden, who is Massachusetts, and Bruce guarded the entrance and looked surprised that Alfred came there.

"Dad, we weren't thinking that you'd come by. Derek went crazy and tried to cut off two states fingers and possibly kill them because he thought that they were traitors." Bruce tried to not be shocked but it crept onto his face quickly.

"Wait what, dude?" Alfred looked confused.

"Just come and look at would our lovely brother has become." Eden waved Alfred in and led him to the overlook that he could see Derek's madness.

"What happened?" Alfred looked terrified at the beast the capital had become. The tables were flipped over and were around the crazed capital.

"He snapped." Amber said indifferently, "He's been going since you left by not letting us leave and locking us in at night."

"But…I can't seem to get the parenting thing down." Alfred looked like he was punched in the gut.

"You did fine raising him-" Eden started.

"No I didn't, look at what he's become. Five of my states left and my allies leave me because they label it as an inside affair. I couldn't even protect him when Arthur burned down the capital." Alfred sat down and stared at the floor.

"Look at the rest of us. We aren't the monster you see below you. You raised us, all of us, by yourself. Just because the one who's always been stressed turned out to be mad and your capital burned down, doesn't mean that you give up. You got to fight and take back what's yours, even if it is my big sister and her friends." Earl said before saying something that would make no sense.

"That was the only thing that my twin has said that actually made sense. If anything, we need our two siblings back. The Midwest can't be the Midwest without them, and Roz can kick that asshole Gunther's ass all the way back to Illinois." Emily smiled reassuringly.

"That and Kyle would be back to full strength. Trevor would be generally happier, too." Amber smiled. She and the other two Midwesterners in the room have been in different regions before but their true home is in the Midwest.

"What are we going to do with Derek?" Eden asked with a confused smile.

"We let him out. I can reason with him because," Alfred smiled and pointed to himself, "I'm the Hero!" The states just stared at the nation as he ran off to let the beast out of his cage.

"He sure changed moods quickly." Emily's face twitched and her jaw was dropped.

"Should we stop him?" Amber looked just as panicked as everyone in the room.

"Should we watch?" Eden pointed towards the glass. The other states thought if they could see what was going on down there, they would know when to run for their lives.

They walked to the glass and saw Alfred bear hugging the squirming capital and saying things into his ears. The states were afraid to turn the sound on just in case the capital was screaming obscenities to the booth. Alfred's nice suit coat was torn on the ground and Alfred just had his vest, white shirt and black dress pants on. Soon the capital stopped attacking the nation and looked like he had his face in the nation's chest. They guessed the capital had calmed down and it looked like Alfred had, too, because he gently placed the capital on the ground.

Some minutes had passed and Alfred and Derek had appeared in the overlook. Derek's eyes were a little puffy but he didn't say anything. Alfred said he was going to take him home and they should go home until they are called there again. The states agreed and left the overlook with happy faces.

* * *

It was two days before they were called into to conference hall again. The states were slow to walk in because the events of the previous days was still fresh in their minds.

Once in room and in the correct seats, Derek spoke up, "I am sorry about my actions. What I was about to do was uncalled for and I assumed too much." The room was silent, "We are here to get your siblings, and mine, back, not to stab each other in the back, literally and figuratively. We must attack the capitals, which is the only way that this rebellion will be quickly resolved. Like what I did in Albany, only what I did was overkill. I wanted them back too bad, it made me reckless. Don't do what I did, but don't be like a traveling salesman asking and hoping that they'd take your offer. That time has passed, they have allied themselves with Ivan. We must attack hard and not pull back until they are begging for mercy. This is the only way."

The room immediately exploded into murmurs of agreement and disagreement. John asked over the rumble of the room, "Are we sure they will surrender? We are up against the most stubborn of us."

"You were there when we made this plan." Derek said reassuringly.

"It was all speculation, Derek. A theory! We aren't even sure that it would work!" Bruce said with concern in his voice.

"It will work. Even though we couldn't see William after the missile hit him and our scouts couldn't find him, father said it looked like he couldn't walk without crutches. He was just that injured." Derek said triumphantly.

"So he was our test subject then." John muttered, "But what we did was unforgivable!"

"We will tone it down a little bit, dear brother." Derek smiled like a killer.

* * *

"You heard him right." Jessica whispered to Max.

"We should warn William of round two." Max held his breath as Jessica nodded. Once again they slipped out of the room, this time unseen by the capital.

 **Well, that was interesting to write. Sorry this wasn't a long chapter, but I had homework from my classes, yay...mylittleponyprincess785 you can see your state in this chapter. I was planning to use each of the states by human name at least once, just I was having difficulties thinking of names so if anyone wants to use their OC or want to name any of them go ahead.**


	8. Chapter 8: And So it Begins

Chapter 8: And So it Begins

Dustin was falling asleep in the dimming light of day next to his bull near a field in the northeastern part Texas wearing his normal attire and a bandana around his neck. He heard the rumble of engines near the border and he was instantly awake because of adrenalin. Pulling out his binoculars he spotted four tanks heading in the general direction of Austin. Smiling he called out to the other rogue nations and Ivan with his radio that was lying near where he was going to sleep.

He pulled out a prototype firearm that Rosalind had made: the now dubbed Chainsaw. He had shot it a few times and it is powerful enough to rip through seven inch steel plates; he thought that it would be more than enough to stop the tanks. The bullet alone is the size of his index finger, but the downside was that he would have to be within 15 yards of his target to hit where he wanted to or it would sink.

Gesturing to his bull to stay and pulling up the bandana like an old time robber, he snuck through the corn field on top of the hill to where the tanks were chewing up another corn field across the dirt road. He had the gun in the ready position and was almost into range when the right most tank aimed and fired at where he was going to camp, where his bull was. Biting his lip to smother a cry he opened fire on the tank. The bullets ripped through the tank like he was shooting paper. Once the first tank almost literally exploded the other tanks fired into the corn patches without knowing the range of the mystery gun.

He was seeing red, he continued to fire into the tank in the back of the caravan and another tank, the one leading, hit the smoking tank making it explode into a fifteen foot fireball. Dustin was out of range from the fireball, but he could feel the heat on his entire body and the wind blew down the corn past his range and into his face.

Corn leaves cut into his skin leaving gashes on his hands and face that wasn't covered by the bandana. He cursed and fired at the right most tank shooting at the now at where he thought was the engine. The tank had a bead on him when he hid back into the corn and fired a few yards in front of him. This opened up another place where the tanks could see him clear as day.

Dustin looked down at his hands in the safety of the corn and saw they were covered in blood. He squatted, leaned the gun against himself without disturbing the corn, wiped them on his pants and let out a soft hiss as they hit the rough fabric. Blood dripped into his eyes and he wiped the palms of his hands across his face as his gun fell onto the ground clicking and making the corn wave as if saying, 'here he is.' Hastily retrieving the gun from the ground he ran through the corn field as another round exploded where he was.

He fell to the ground hearing the rumble of the engines driving away from the broken corn circle. They must have thought that the mystery Rambo with the unidentified firearm was killed. He picked himself up from the tilled soil and stalked the remaining two tanks.

He trailed the tanks for an hour and decided to use a different tactic by throwing a rock about the size of his fist and hitting the top of the hatch door. The two tanks stopped again and aimed at where the rock came from, or as close to as it can and fired. By this time, Dustin was in front of the right most tank and he opened fire on it. Within a few seconds the tank was smoking; the hatch opened up and the four soldiers that was piloting the tank promptly jumped out of the tank before it exploded. Because if was so close to the other tank, the force of the explosion flipped over the leading tank.

Dustin appeared out of the corn covered in blood, dirt and sweat and aimed the gun at the four that had escaped the tank, who happened to be Bruce, Eden, Jake, and Adam. Adam had his hand on a wound on the top of his left bicep, apparently one of the bullets ricocheted into the cabin of the tank and went through his arm. The rest of them were surprised that he was still alive.

"Funny meeting you four here." Dustin huffed.

"As much as I like being shot, I think I'll pass. I'll surrender." Adam said with a smirk and lifted his right arm and his left arm laid limp against his torso.

"I want the four of you to throw your guns into pile in the middle of us." Dustin ordered with a snarl on his face.

Bruce asked, "How do you know that all of us have guns?"

"Well, gun boy, you always have at least a pistol on you at all times. Now throw them all down!" Dustin didn't like talking in circles.

Bruce mumbled as he pulled out seemingly impossible guns from impossible places, "How did we get caught by one person?" He then looked at the gun and he has never seen that style before; he originally thought that he was aiming a moded gun, but this he has never seen before. The gun looked like it was modeled after a LSAT with the two inch bullets laying on a thick brown leather belt hanging out of the action, being threaded into a massive magazine and the bullet part coming out of the other side. The stock was a stained wood that had shocks and metal polls to stop the gun from hurting the user because it was so powerful. One of the things that was off about it, its stock was short, about the size of an AK's, for the size of bullets that went into it.

"What kind of gun is that?" Bruce asked with a light behind his eyes before dropping a small pistol from his left ankle holster.

"I'll tell you when you guys are behind bars." Dustin growled.

"What did we do other than attempt to kill you?" Jake smiled oblivious to the fact he was treading on thin ice. He placed his pistols on the growing pile.

"How many weapons have you got on you, Bruce?" Dustin looked shocked but not distracted for his gun has trained on each of them. Then he answered with his eyes glowing with hatred, "Do you know what was up there? Where you shot. My bull was up there, you dumb fucks; you killed my bull!" The states looked at each other in fear and quickly emptied their pockets of all weapons.

They were being led by gun point to their original destination, Austin.

* * *

Roland heard the excitement in the Texan's voice as he said that two tanks were pulling into his vicinity. Overly excited by his standard.

He was still a little weak from not being with his brother, but he was generally healthier. No longer needing to sit in front of a fire in a blanket to be warm, he enjoyed the flurries and acted younger than he was and jumped into snow banks, laughing. The great lakes were almost frozen over and he was going to go ice fishing until he saw the destroyers cracking the thick ice, sometimes cracking their hulls when they came out of Lake Huron.

Sprinting back to his house on the peninsula tip, he found his ham radio and screamed into it for help and to warn Rosalind. The others were surprised and Aurora said he'd be the first because she knew that the tanks were up for a hard contest with the cowboy.

His army was the smallest of the rogue nations, and this worried him. Because he was the smallest, maybe the United States military decided to attack the 'soft underbelly' of the rogue nations like they did in World War 2 against the Axis. Do they seem them as much as a threat as the fascists or are they trying to make the union stand on its own once again like in the Civil War? He guessed that since they left a lot like the south did, they are trying to get them back into the union. _Like hell I'm going back. I'm going to fight tooth and nail to retain my independence._ He thought with a smile on his face.

He put on his winter Ghillie suit that Rosalind got him for Christmas one year, thanked her under his breath, and grabbed his 30.30 rifle from the wall. Walking out of the house, the first thing he saw from his little sniper's perch on top of a cliff is that one of the Destroyers was sinking and the crew abandoned the water craft as it sunk under the ice of Lake Michigan. The crew was walking on the ice and slipping as they walked to another Destroyer to board it. He decided to take pot shots at them and one by one they fell; once again he thanked Rosalind for the shooting range lessons. Before he shot the last one the front most Destroyer shot at where he was on top of the cliff.

Seeing the large round come at him, the world seemed to slow; he knew that he wouldn't make it past the blast range. As the round exploded on the rocks above him he flew towards his house. A rock must have hit him on the back of the head because he didn't remember hitting the ground.

* * *

Rosalind was trying to contact Roland and tell him not to engage until she got there. Apparently he wasn't listening or left the house before she sent the message. She sighed and decided to see if her older brother was alright. She hopped on her snowmobile and drove to the border from Superior, but was surprised when there was union troops guarding the border. She knew that the union had her brother and they were going to pay.

* * *

Roland woke up on his face in the snow and his head hurt. He attempted to get up but something stepped on his back to keep him down. He attempted to look up and saw a blurry image, but there could be no mistaking the voice, it was the Illini, Gunther.

"Seems that sleeping beauty is up." He grabbed the Ghillie suit by the hood choking the younger nation. Roland's hands went to the zipper and undid it enough to slip to the ground coughing and holding his throat with his legs still in the suit. Gunther looked at the partially empty suit and smirked

"Don't hold him like that." Max said to the physically larger state.

"He'll be fine." Gunther threw the nation over his shoulder, "We should take him back to DC."

David asked with a small smile, "How could you see him? I saw my men going down but I couldn't see him because he's wearing white and it was a flurry."

"The flash of his gun and the light hitting the gun, that's how I saw him. But damn, he's a good shot, only missed five out of fifty shots. The only reason that I didn't shoot him, was that I wasn't sure where he was." Gunther chuckled. Roland was blinking trying to stay awake, he knew he had a severe concussion.

"Your brother was easier to capture than Rosalind, I guess." Max sighed and walked the same path they used to get up there.

"Agreed, but my sister has a temper to match her evasiveness. We probably made her more pissed than her bull is when he sees me." Gunther followed the older state when he thought of what would happen if he were to side with Rosalind, if all the Midwesterners were to ally themselves with her. They'd be unstoppable, then realized how useless that idea would be at the moment. The rogue nations are losing the war, but if they have Russia on their side, it's only a matter of time before World War 3.

* * *

Aurora was about to start up her jet when one of her men sprinted up to her and told her that there was an urgent message from Rosalind. She sighed and couldn't shake the sinking feeling in her gut.

When she entered the room that held her ham radio she could hear Rosalind's urgent voice, "Aurora, we need some fire power down here in Wisconsin. They have Roland." Aurora's eyes went wide and she punched the nearest wall. _So soon? Alfred, you want this war over as quickly as possible you fox…you're playing with fire, if you attack Ro and not Roz, she will hunt you for the rest of your life_ , _fool._ Aurora thought to herself.

"How the hell did Roland get caught?" Aurora asked into the microphone.

"I have no idea, all I know that there are union troops waiting at my border on all sides." Rosalind growled, "If they think they'll take me down as fast as Ro, they're sorely mistaken."

"Calm down Roz. We need our heads together and you not to get caught. Maybe we need to change positions to offensive instead of defensive." Aurora suggested. At this point she wanted no more to stick a knife to Alfred's throat because of all that he has allowed to be done.

"Agreed" Rosalind nodded.

* * *

"William, how fitting is it that we meet on the battle field again." Derek smiled from the other end of his M16. He was wearing a US army uniform with the markings of a general.

They were in the Bronx in New York City, the backdrop behind him was an inferno and a greying sky. Behind William the sun was setting but the sky was blood red. Debris was falling of them from the burning skyscrapers.

"Well, _brother_ , will you pull the trigger or shall I?" William growled from the stock of his M1 Grand that he salvaged from his house. He was wearing the tux that Max had given to him with a bullet proof vest under the coat. Derek just answered him by chuckling manically.

William smiled when he saw shadows moving on top of the roof tops. He knew his snipers were up there and waiting for the verbal command to shoot the insane capital. Once the shadows stopped moving he asked the capital, "What are you waiting for? Become the monster everyone thinks you are!"

A look of concern entered Derek's eyes, that was gone in a matter of seconds and was replaced by anger, "Who told you that!? Jessica or Max? Which one is the traitor?"

"Heh, it doesn't matter. It's just me and you in the Bronx. I think it is about time to end this little game." William stared down his advisory, who was looking frantically at the snipers perched on the edges of rooftops, "One word, and pop you're dead."

"You can't be serious…" Derek looked into his former brother's eyes and brought his weapon down slightly, concern returned to his eyes, "You can't kill your brother…"

"What makes you think I'll kill you? I'm a pacifist…" William grinned sarcastically.

"I know for a fact you aren't a pacifist." The madness returned to Derek's eyes and he brought the gun back up to his shoulder.

 _Well, this is interesting…he's still in there but it is almost like he's possessed_. William thought to himself, _There has to be a way to make him back into the normal guy he was not this reckless psychopath he is now._ "Do you remember when you were very young? Max, John and I would take care of you, especially after Arthur burned the capital with you in it." William reasoned.

"Yes…what?" Derek slowly lowered the gun then quickly brought it back up to his eyes, "Are you trying to make me let down my guard, eh?"

"You were a child for longer than us, and we fought for you even though they didn't know where to put you." William took a deep breath, "Remember how sometimes I would come back injured from battle but still entertained you."

"Why are you doing this!?" Derek dropped his gun and held his head. He obviously wasn't feeling well since he collided with a wall away from his gun and slid down it.

"Are you okay, Derek?" William slowly walked up to the capital with his gun pointed at him. He kicked the M16 farther down the alleyway and put the sling around his shoulder. Leaning down to the capital's level, he found Derek to be sobbing.

"What have I done? I have pushed all of my loved ones away, just to try to get you all back, you rogue nations. It wasn't fair that I, a mere city, was in with you all the great states. You all never listened to me and Rosalind left because she felt that she could get more done alone, then her older brother, Roland leaves. He just wanted to be on his own and father wouldn't give him his own state because he was too small compared to his twin." Derek sobbed then looked into William's eyes, "Why did you leave, Will?"

"Because I wanted to see if I'd make it on my own." William sighed, "You should get out of here, but if you attack again, I will not hesitate to kill you." He helped Derek up from the ground and he found that the capital was much lighter than normal, "Have you been eating?" Derek shook his head, he had been so concerned with reinstating them back into the union he hadn't eaten in six days.

"N-no, I was busy." Derek shuddered, the cold was starting to get to him. He asked himself, _How do these northern nations take the cold?_

William pulled out an orange out of his pocket and gave it to the capital, "Eat it; think of it as a last gift from your younger brother." Derek viciously pealed the orange leaving peals behind him and ate the succulent fruit nodding.

Once they neared the outskirts of the smoking city, Derek nodded and looked back at his younger brother. This will be the last time he'll think of the New Yorker as his younger brother. William was standing proudly in front of the city with a tux covered in debris and soot on his face and knuckles. His state flag stood over the city in place of the usual American flag flapping in the distance.

* * *

 **So, I'm a hunter and I know a thing or two about guns. Sorry about the stress on the guns this chapter, but that's how wars are fought, or at least in my mind. With the made up gun I made the one thing I thought of was one of my dad's guns that we both shot ten rounds, or bullets, and it bruised both of our shoulders. We even have a gun that uses the same bullet and it is okay, it's just the recoil on that gun. Just so you know I hunt with a Yugoslavian SKS. There is a cool back story for that but this is a what I was thinking when I wrote it.**

 **I know that it seems that Derek, or DC, was going mad and he was. The stress of another war was beating down on him and he lost his mind for the last three chapters, until William did a very common thing, and told him of past things that he did for the capital. Then he magically snaps out of it, but realizes that he nearly killed him.**


	9. Chapter 9: Breathe

Chapter 9: Breathe

Roland was pushed in to the conference room gagged and bound by rope. He fell over and rolled on to his back instinctively and Gunther stomped on his gut as if he was posing for a photo with a trophy. David and Max walked up behind Gunther and Max looked at Jessica for any sign the William was still okay.

"We caught one of them!" Gunther smirked and grinded his foot on him brother, who groaned and tried to slip from under the cursed foot, "Stop moving, boy!"

Alfred stared along with the other states, but was the first one to speak, "So you captured Roland? Dude that was a low blow and the other rogue nations will not enjoy that, especially Rosalind, but a captured nation is a captured nation."

"I've heard that the attack in Texas didn't go as expected." Carver said with a sigh, "Maybe they need back up."

"I don't care how badly that suicide mission went. All I care about is that we caught one of them and we are winning the war!" Gunther boomed, "Once again on the little guy, where should I put him? In the room where we locked DC in?" Alfred nodded and the hulking state let his foot off of the rogue nation, threw him over his shoulder before Roland could run for his life, and walked out of the room triumphantly. David calmly walked to his seat on the northeastern states side and Max sat next to Jessica.

"So back on the Texas thing. What do you mean didn't go as planned dude?" Alfred was concerned.

"Well, all I heard was that some unidentified man that looked like Rambo and had an unidentified gun that could chew through the tanks' armor. Then they kept contact until a few hours ago, then nothing. Wait, they said another attack on the west tank and that one blew up and then nothing." Carver muttered.

"The west tank had Bruce, Eden, Jake and Adam in it. They may have gotten out of the tank before it exploded…"John tailed off. He could feel his heart sinking in his chest.

Alfred stared at John and Carver in fear, "I would know if they were dead, right dudes? Maybe Dustin has them locked up, right?" The fear in his voice was palpable and he truly wouldn't know what would happen if one of his states was dead.

"I would guess so, Alfred." Trevor said quietly and with a quiver in his voice, then added a little stronger, "If we are to attack Rosalind, I would like to take part." The room was entirely silent and what he said echoed off of the walls.

"Well, dude, we are going to wait for Derek to return from the attack on New York City, then we'll talk about attacking the other rogue nations. I can only hope that Derek will come back with William." Alfred sighed.

Derek stumbled into the room soon after, still covered with soot and ash. He was holding his arm like he hurt it and had anger in his eyes. The entire room was wide eyed and looked surprised and horrified.

* * *

Dustin was happily playing with the keys on a key ring that held the freedom to the four states in the room, "You could have left the union with us, then you wouldn't be in this conundrum." His hands were bound with bandages enough that he could still use his hands; his face, however, wasn't covered up, but were cleaned that there wasn't any blood on his face. The four states that were in the cells could see the crisscrossing of cuts on his forehead and near his eyes.

"Like hell I would leave! I helped create this country and you five aren't going to tear it down!" Eden growled. He was brooding in the corner of his cell, not facing the nation.

"Will, helped too, and he left. Being a nation isn't so hard, you just have to be strong." The Texan answered with a smirk and was still playing with the key ring.

"You don't have any money! How are you going to pay for this war!?" Bruce argued. His hands were gipped on the steel bars that lined his cell.

"How is Alfred going to pay for this war? With the borrowed money he took from Yao?" Dustin toyed with them.

"Will the two of you shut up, I'm trying to take a nap." Adam said slapping a thin pillow over his face on the wall mounted cot. He had his arm in a sling and the bullet hole that went completely through his arm stitched and wrapped up.

"Can you get one of your cheerleaders from your football team in here?" Jake smiled. He was resting his elbow on and leaning on the wall.

"Jake, no. You are prisoners, not tourists." Dustin clipped the key ring on his belt. He had to leave the prison so he could talk to the other rogue nations and see if anyone else was attacked.

As he walked up the concrete stairs to the exit so he could use his cellphone, he thought of how he could pay for the war. He could make Alfred pay war reparations, but that would be like pocket change to the world power, or he could export the corn and cotton grown in his country. Either way he would make more than enough to pay for the war.

Once he cleared the doors, he heard a ding from his cellphone that he now had reception. He called Rosalind who wasn't thrilled about him using a cellphone and that the ham radio was destroyed.

"You have to be kidding, they blew up your ham radio." Rosalind's voice was almost covered up by the sound of heavy machinery in the background, but he could tell what she was saying.

"Could you get away from the machines? It's just hard to hear you. I caught the bastards after testing out your prototype." The Texan rubbed the back of his head while pacing.

"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but Roland was caught. We need to switch our positions from defensive to offensive. We are going to tear our way all the way to DC and give those fools a taste of their own medicine." Rosalind growled, then asked with a softer voice, "You used my prototype against tanks? That takes guts, cowboy. How well did it hold up?"

"Great, it chewed though tanks like they were made of paper. What are you making, more of this gun?" Dustin asked with a smile.

"No actually. That one is the only one for now, until that factory is done. In this one we are making entire vehicles. You know, like tanks, halftracks, stuff like that." Rosalind sounded proud of that then returned to her earlier mood, "We have to get him back, I fear what Derek would do in his current mindset. Will, said that he was doing better, more hesitant but still nuts."

"We better get our asses in gear." Dustin said suddenly, "What's the plan?"

* * *

Derek smiled at the shocked faces of the states and his father, "Well, how did your mission go and where is the four we sent down to Texas?" He sat down hi his usual seat and wiped off the soot on his face with a handkerchief.

"Well, we caught Roland. What happened in New York, I thought you had that under control?" Max said with confusion. He was fidgeting in his chair and almost expected William to kill Derek after all that he had done.

"Well, they knew that we were coming. Someone told them that we were coming." He said cold and precisely, "New York City is just to sprawling to attack directly like we did, so I'd imagine that we need a new tactic to take back New York. The only reason I even thought about attacking there because that is the capital until they rebuild Albany. Where is Roland? I would like to talk to him."

"Umm, no. You aren't touching my twin." Kyle said angrily. He knew what the capital was capable to do to anyone who offended him.

"Who are you to tell me what I can do?" Derek walked coldly to Kyle and growled to his face, "You are weak now because he left. Don't you want to be strong again?"

"The connection between us could never be the same, Derek. He will not break under you and you underestimate him." Kyle stared into the mad eyes of the capital.

Alfred whispered to Carver, "How long has he been like this?"

Carver whispered confused, "Well, he has been losing his mind for the last six or seven days; since the five of them left, he has obsessed over this." Alfred made an o noise and picked up his capital, threw him over his shoulder, and walked out of the room with him; meanwhile the states watched this phenomenon and after Alfred left the conference room exploded into conversations and sever laughing.

* * *

"What the hell, dad?" Derek said from his father's back.

Alfred put him down but kept his hands on the capital's shoulders, "The others are telling me that you are going crazy, dude."

"Oh yeah? What do they say?" Derek said sarcastically.

"You know…you tried to cut off the ring fingers off of two of your siblings' hands…and this now. You need to keep your head on straight, not allowing this to consume you like the last time." Alfred said softly.

"They left for no reason-" Derek started, but Alfred stopped him with shaking his head.

Alfred softly said, "Just don't want to lose you, okay, dude? I'll let go of you and be careful." Alfred let go of his son and Derek stared coldly at his father with his identical blue eyes to the nation in front of him.

* * *

The call from Ivan and Aurora was to be expected from the earlier day's events and they sent a lot more help than was originally thought. Entire battalions were sent to each of the lower rogue nations, except Roland (at the moment it would be impossible), more than enough to take back Superior and Roland.

"So what's the plan, Rosalind?" Aurora walked through the halls of Rosalind's house.

"We chew through the US until we get to DC and then we take Roland by force." Rosalind said with no emotion on her face, "Short and sweet. The only catch is that we leave enough people to defend the captured areas and have enough to take the next area."

"Leave that to me, da. Just don't die." Ivan smiled.

Aurora nodded and said, "It's probably for the best, dad. I'll go along with Roz and we will give the states hell if Roland is hurt or injured in anyway."

"Be safe, my sunflowers. If Alfred hurts any of you," Ivan's face stayed smiling but the area around him turned a dark purple, "He will not live another day."

"That great, Ivan." A small smile appeared on Rosalind's face. She was happy to have someone watching her back for once.

As the three of them left her house and joined the enormous army that waited on the edge of her property. The army held the three nations people with the appropriate uniforms and places. Each personification lead their armies north towards Superior.

* * *

Roland was flipped onto his back when Gunther set him down "gently." He groaned and Gunther cut the ropes that bound him and left the room. Flinging the ropes across the room as if they were snakes, he took bearings of where he was, and he didn't actually know. The click that resounded around the empty room confirmed his fear that he was locked in the room. He could deal with this.

Looking around the desolate room he found two gurneys flipped over. _Much like something that Derek would do_ , Roland thought and chuckled, _I had no idea that there was such room in the conference hall. Everything is so white, so much like snow, and just as cold._ He started to get dizzy and almost tripped over the gurneys and slid back into a wall.

* * *

"I don't think our brother is doing well, Kyle." Trevor sighed in the overlook, "Are you listening, Kyle?"

"Yeah, I know. Even though he is no longer with me as a state, he is still my twin. I can still feel his pain." Kyle sighed back to his brother.

"I may be the third youngest, but I know this is wrong. We shouldn't leave him in there with nothing." Trevor walked to the window again and stuck his hand over his older sibling's sitting form,

"Agreed." Kyle said as he slowly stood up.

* * *

William was walking slowly through the ruined city of Albany. He was furious at what had happened to Roland and it couldn't have happened at a worse time; he needed to clear his head also from his encounter with his crazed brother. Feeling helpless, he felt that his brother's madness sprung from his sudden absence in the union, but he couldn't just give up. So here he is walking through the burnt and blood soaked ghost city, he heard a stifled cry.

He rushed to the sound and dug through the rubble to connect with a bleeding, soot covered hand. Removing more of the rubble he unearthed his lost city, Albany.

She jumped into his arms from the cavernous building moments before the building collapsed and buried her face in his chest. He calmly held and stroked his city's long yellow blonde hair that was colored a dull black from the soot, but a raging fire burned in his eyes. He realized at that moment of how monstrous his brother had become. When he looked down at his burnt city, his eyes softened and held her close.

"Pa, I'm so sorry!" Her cry was muffled from his chest and cracked from dehydration.

"It's not your fault, Rose." He said softly to calm her, "I'm glad that you are okay."

Rose looked up at her adoptive father, "I failed you. I had no idea that Derek would be that ruthless."

"Derek was here?" William's voice lowered quickly and he held her closer.

"Y-yes. He led the attack." Rose looked at her father with fear in her eyes.

William picked her up bridal style and said looking in the general direction of DC, "He will pay."

* * *

 **Well, now we know that Derek is a raging psychopath. Sorry I haven't been constant on my updating, but college. Why does it have to be so hard? Well back to the story, Roland got captured and has a severe concussion (He was sliding down the wall because of a dizzy fit, which is close to what happened to my brother. Only he was really moody and had a severe headache, too). I had fun writing that for the last two hours, but it was really short compared to the last chapter. Sorry about that. Tomorrow's Friday and I may or may not update because of homework and game night! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I was waiting to use Albany and I thought, why not right at the end of this chapter. And I got to show off Will's caring side.**

 **PS: I couldn't think of a name for this chapter so I just happened to look at my ipod and look at the song I was listening to. I just happened to be Breathe by Disturbed. I know I have a strange taste in music.**


	10. Chapter 10: Silence and Suffering

Chapter 9: Silence and Suffering

The next day, Derek woke up in his bed. He didn't remember going there but for the last three or four days was a blur. _First the five nations left_ , he reminded himself, _then I obsessed about it. That's what must have happened because that has happened before. First it was Alfred and now Will talked me out of my stupor and gave me something that I had been lacking, a fruit. Why was it a fruit both times? I came back and I was cold and upset, but something doesn't seem right. I think I haven't been myself in a few days._ He tried to get out of bed but he felt so weak, what is going on?

Derek stumbled to the door of his room as if in a daze, but as he left the room he looked back in and found that a journal had appeared on the desk; one that he hadn't seen in years. It was a blood red leather notebook bound in with black leather straps. He never did remember where he got the thing in the first place, it was just there, sitting on that desk since he got burnt that one time by Arthur disappearing from time to time.

Picking up the notebook he flipped through the pages, showing one mad thought after another. The last entry was the day that he attacked William for the second time. It read that he was going to brutally murder his brother in great detail. Out of shock, he dropped the notebook and it hit the carpeted floor with a thud. The memories of the past days flooded back and he scrambled away from it.

He needed to get away from the demon notebook and the damn memories that are beginning to haunt him. Stumbling out of the room, he slammed the door shut behind him and slid down the closed door holding his face. He couldn't believe that he had done that and almost hurt and killed his siblings.

"What is wrong with me?" He sobbed, "What have I done?"

* * *

Alfred heard the door slam and thought something was off because Derek considered that to be disrespectful. He ran up the stairs to find Derek in a ball holding his face sobbing. Sitting down next to his son and rubbing his back.

"What happened, dude?" Alfred said with a small smile.

"I…I have no idea what I have done." Derek groaned, "You know that notebook that I was telling you about, the one apparently you can't see. It showed up again, but I…" He buried his face in his hands muffling his voice and sobs, "I…have done some…horrible things…things that I…would never do…just like in the first Civil War…"

"What are you talking about dude?" Alfred looked confused and was still smiling, "I remember you saying something about a notebook before, and you did something similar earlier. I am still lost dude."

"Of course you wouldn't understand!" Derek stared his father in the eyes, "I think your older brother-"

"Dude, Arthur isn't my brother." Alfred laughed.

Derek's face twitched and corrected his statement slowly, " _Arthur_ , I think he cursed me while trying to curse you." Alfred merely laughed something about magic being a joke and Derek pointed out, "David has the magic touch. He appeared in the room I was in the containment area after I locked the door. You know how no one can get, right. Well he got in and stopped me from hurting Max and Jessica."

"Dude, you probably forgot to lock the door." Alfred laughed, "And there is no way that any of my children even have magic."

"It was locked, trust me, I checked." Derek was completely serious, "That is probably the reason that he is so withdrawn and the others tend to stay as far away from him as possible."

Something clicked in Alfred's mind, he stopped laughing and said with total seriousness, "So I should talk to Arthur then?"

Derek looked at his father with a what-the-fuck face, "No I want you to skip around in a field of fucking daisies. Yeah I want you to talk to Arthur about the damn notebook. This is only going to get worse and I'm afraid that I won't be able to be pulled out of it next time. Take the damn thing with you, though I don't think you would be able to, though."

"What about the war, do you think you can continue?" Alfred rose to his feet before helping his weakened capital to his feet.

"Yeah, I have to." Derek sighed. He opened the door to the room and his father rushed into the room finding the notebook easily. As he left the room though, the notebook left his hands and appeared on the desk.

"How the fuck?" Alfred exclaimed, "I was just holding the damn thing dude!"

"It's cursed you dumbass…" Derek moaned.

* * *

As the battle for Superior and the many battles that had taken place had closed to and end the rogue nations obliterated the opposing army. So many were dead on both sides because the snow was coated a bright red even after the bodies were removed and a light snowfall covered the forest.

The three nations, Ivan, Rosalind, and Aurora, stood in the knee deep snow as if expecting Roland to pop out and say hello. They knew better, Alfred and his remaining states would've placed the nation in a jail somewhere in DC. At the very least they can't claim him as a state of the union.

During the battle the remaining soldiers of Superior had helped them even after many of them were incarcerated. To the surprise of the nations, none of them died in any of the battles because of their knowledge of the area, which helped to the decisive win of the nations.

* * *

Roland stared into the white abyss of the room feeling cold, hungry, and cut off. He sat in a small ball behind the gurneys feeling as if he was being watched. Wait, he knew that he was being watched, knowing Derek. That overhang with the darkened glass, which was the only color in the room other than him, had moving shapes near the glass. They appeared to be talking to each other like he was a specimen in the cage instead of a person.

Soon the door opened to reveal, Kyle and Trevor. Kyle looked he could barely hold himself up and Trevor looked a little beat up, but that was nothing new. Kyle rushed to him, forgetting his fatigue, and pretty much tackled him.

"Get off of me Kyle." Roland moaned, but he enjoyed the physical contact in the cold room.

"Why don't I feel better?" Kyle muttered from Roland's stomach.

Roland suppressed a laugh, "Because I'm still a country. You could have left with me, you know, but you would be in the same boat as you are now and you would be on the winning side."

"Well, Wisconsin did attack the union at the same time as the rest of the rogue nations, but you got captured, older brother." Trevor muttered, "And it doesn't look like she's going to attack me, 'cause she is going east, towards DC."

"Then she's coming to get me." Roland muttered with a small cough.

Kyle rolled off his brother, receiving a grunt, and muttered with a laugh, "Well, those four I believe are going to get their asses kicked."

"Yeah. So is Alfred, you know Rosalind's rage." Roland smiled along with the states.

* * *

Some days had passed and the rogue nations have chewed through a great potion of the US. Most of northern Illinois, all of Indiana, almost all of Ohio, Superior, the northwest portion of West Virginia and the corner of Pennsylvania had been captured by Rosalind, Aurora, and Ivan; the eastern half of Oklahoma, most of Arkansas, the bottom eastern corner of Missouri, half of Tennessee and Kentucky were captured by Dustin. The eastern portion of Pennsylvania and northern portion of New Jersey were controlled by William, who was beyond angry.

As soon as Rosalind had heard that Gunther had been part of the team that had captured her older brother, she wanted to burn his capital to the ground, but Aurora and Ivan had stopped the raging Wisconsinite.

Now at the western allied rogue nation camp on that little corner of the state of brotherly love in a ruined building, Rosalind, Ivan, Aurora, and Dustin were planning their attack with William who was on the other side of the state.

Rosalind was wearing her new uniform of a black trench coat with a tiny embroidered silver and gold badger on the right flap and the coat was unbuttoned showing a blue t-shirt with Al's Oasis on it, and a black long-sleeved thermal under that. She was also wearing thermal camo pants and brown leather steel toed snow boots.

Dustin was wearing a dark blue down jacket, a Texas Longhorns sweatshirt with the bright orange hood flowing out of the back of his jacket, a black long-sleeved thermal, thermal blue jeans, and brown leather steel toed boots.

Aurora was wearing a white thermal Ghillie suit with black leather snow boots, and Ivan was wearing his usual attire.

"So we will just squeeze them out of this state and we will be fighting through where?" Dustin shivered with his thick coat on.

"Jesus, you southerners have no resistance from the cold. Yeah, we'll chew through this state so we have a clear path through the states to get the rest of our armies and we can just cut through Maryland. We will be able to attack the capital easily after that, make them surrender and go on with our lives. After we get back Roland." Rosalind strained a smile.

"Yeah and your boyfriend says hello and he wants to kill me." Dustin laughed heartily. Ivan slightly tensed in the background

Rosalind stared into his eyes and said coldly, "He isn't my boyfriend."

Ivan smiled as usual, "Who is this man?"

Rosalind didn't remember that Ivan was still in the room, "Umm, no one that you need to worry about. Dustin caught him and three of his brothers."

Aurora said with a mock laugh, "Yeah, and you didn't have a crush on him for the past-"

"Shut up!" Rosalind was flustered.

William, who was on the other side of the line, asked a little forcefully, "What the hell is going on there? Are all of you picking on Rosalind?" He knew that she has been stressed for the past few days and didn't need them to instigate her.

Rosalind needed to get out of there before she would break down. So close yet so far, and she just calmly left the room and walked into the nearby forest. She thought that now one would bother her in there and she knew that the others were just toying with her to lighten her mood, but she didn't need that. Feeling stupid that had been the straw to break the camel's back, but she couldn't hold back the tears that flowed calmly down her face; she hated to show anything that she considered weakness to anyone which included crying and self-pity. Her back slid down the rough bark of a tree that was a considerable distance from the camp and her face was buried in her hands.

* * *

Ivan had noticed her leave like the rest of them, the others knew that she just needed some alone time and it was hard to track the Wisconsinite even in the snow. He didn't care and he had an idea, so he headed out after and found that the evasive Wisconsinite was just as hard to track as a cunning wolf. Apparently she didn't want to be found, but he found out that farther down in the general direction of north that she was easier to follow. It was like that she thought that people that would be looking for her would give up before that. Obviously it didn't occur to her that the Russian would attempt to find her.

When he did find her, she jumped from the sound of the cracking of a branch under the Russian's feet. She looked up slightly and hid her face from him with her hands that were as red as her face.

"What's wrong, sunflower?" Ivan said as he slowly crept up to her.

She rose and walked away from Ivan quickly, "N-nothing. I-it's stupid, you should go back to camp."

He clasped her shoulders and forced her to face him, "Tell me."

"I-I just needed some time away from everything." Rosalind said a little detached. He hugged her softly, not saying anything, and she stood stiffly with her hands still covering her face. Slowly she retracted her hands from her face, buried her face into his chest, hugged him back, and cried. He smiled softly and rubbed her back reassuringly.

When she was finished and let go of her friend's father and he released his iron grip on her. He said with his usual smile but with a light in his blue-violet eyes, "Are you okay now, sunflower?"

"Yeah, just I wasn't planning on you following me and I know that bottling everything up is really bad, but I just can't do it in front of people. I feel that it makes me weaker in their eyes, lesser." Rosalind sighed and rambled. She couldn't look him in the eyes after this, so she was looking to her feet and frowning.

Ivan put his hand under her chin and lifted her head so he could see her face, but she wouldn't look him in the eyes, "Sunflower, please look at me. Nothing could make me think less of you. You are my comrade and…friend." He slowed down and had to think if he should confess, but thought better. She slowly looked into his eyes and found that his face was closer to her than what she usually thought of friendly. Their foreheads were almost touching.

"Umm, Ivan?" Rosalind's blush rose up on her face, "Why are you so close to me?" She was still uncomfortable with body contact, and had a pretty large personal space bubble; Ivan was popping it at the moment.

He stood there for a few seconds as if he was trying to comprehend what she said and muttered with his face slightly blushing, "Oh, sorry, sunflower. I forgot how you feel about the personal space bubble." He leaned slightly back, letting go of her chin.

"Uh…I…umm…" Rosalind gritted her teeth and just stood there awkwardly. She looked into his eyes and said hesitantly, "Aurora told me that you don't usually touch people affectionately or really at all. Why the hell do you keep on hugging me?"

"Because I like you." Ivan said still smiling and slightly blushing.

Rosalind raised one eyebrow and sighed, "Okay." She walked around the Russian, only to be stopped by his hand on her shoulder. She turned quickly to face him.

"D-do you feel the same?" Ivan muttered, his smile becoming strained. It was looking like he actually cared about her answer.

Rosalind's face went blank. She had no idea how to answer the question because she really hadn't thought about it. _Well he was the only one who found me_ , She thought to herself _, He actually cares about me, strange enough. Yet he is my best friend's dad though…_

Ivan was waving his hand frantically in Rosalind's face thinking that he broke her. She broke out of it, grabbed his hand from in front of her face, and looked into his eyes. He looked scared that he might have done something and then relieved. She smiled and nodded. He smiled a true smile and bear hugged her.

They ended up going back to the building as the sun was setting hand in hand; until they made it to camp where Rosalind broke the contact and thought it better to act casual during business, and she thought it was a little awkward that her 'friend' happens to be her best friend's dad. Ivan was a little confused about her somewhat cool demeanor at the moment, but brushed it off as business.

* * *

Alfred was at Arthur's home, uninvited again, bothering him about a curse that he misfired.

"But Iggy-" Alfred whined being cut off by Arthur's retort.

"Don't call me that. I have a name." Arthur rolled his eyes. He remembered that he 'cursed' Alfred but he never cursed his brat.

"Seriously, he needs an exorcism or you to stop that damn curse, Arthur dude." Alfred crossed his arms.

"What makes you think that I am responsible?" Arthur was intrigued, but knew nothing of the sort of cursed journal.

"Because he said that you attempted to curse me during the revolutionary war, but failed to." Alfred said completely serious, "I just need you to reverse whatever spell you sent on Derek, dude."

"I never did anything of the sort. I am interested, but something else is at work." Arthur turned around and muttered, "I guess I could do something to stop him from spiraling deeper into madness."

"So you can't do anything about the creepy journal, dude?" Alfred frowned.

"If I could see it, I would be able to do something, but I'm afraid that you would have to take me there." Arthur sighed. Alfred laughed loudly and dragged the poor Englishman to the airport while Arthur was screaming profanities at the American.

* * *

Back in Alfred's house, Derek sat on his bed occasionally glancing at the cursed journal to make sure that it was still there. Last time he had little control over what he had done and a lot of people under him had died because of the battles. Even no, he felt that he had no control over the current situation.

He had heard of the losing battles that had occurred in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, and the newly formed Superior. Obviously his brother's and his strategies weren't working and didn't help that Bruce, his main strategist, was captured. That and the rogue nations were ruthless and they had William and Rosalind. Going to war with them with that strategy was just about as detrimental as the Vietnam War. They needed to change if they are to survive.

Just as he was worrying about those problems, Arthur, who was being dragged by Alfred, and Alfred busted into the room.

"Derek, the Hero has returned with help!" Alfred looked a little to triumphant.

"He dragged you all the way here, eh Arthur." Derek muttered looking bored at Arthur.

Arthur finally broke free of Alfred's iron grip, "Yes, the git dragged me all the way here." Arthur gestured to the red leather bound journal, "This is the possessed journal?" Derek nodded and Arthur carefully picked up the journal.

"Is there anything you can do about it, dude?" Alfred was looking over Arthur's shoulder.

"Give me some room, bloody hell." Arthur growled as Alfred backed off, "As I said this wasn't my doing and the good news is that I can get rid of it."

Derek nodded and left the room to give the nation some room while dragging his father out of the room.

* * *

 **I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I have college, exams, and studying that have been taking up my time. This is the plan for the rest of the fanfic, I'll write five chapters for this story and post it and the other story write two, because they are longer chapters, and post it also. Life's also been kicking me in the ass.**

 **Well I got the idea for this chapter because of another totally unrelated topic. My friend's character for larp is Silence and Suffering, sorta like Jackal and Hyde, and his character is completely mad-ish.**

 **Once again I am so sorry for making you wait, but next time you'll have five chapters to read instead of the usual one, right?**


End file.
